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aA^^'/U ° aY> 






































THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR 


BY EDWARD A. POLLARD 

EDITOR OF 4 TILE RICHMOND EXAMINER 5 
AUTHOR OF ‘ BLACK DIAMONDS’ 

ETC ETC 


THE SECOND NORTHERN FROM THE SECOND SOUTHERN EDITION, ENLARGED, 
WITH THE ADDITION OF PORTRAITS OF DAVIS, LEE, 
BEAUREGARD, AND STONEWALL JACKSON; 

AND A MAP. 



LONDON : HENRY STEVENS, 4, TRAFALGAR SQUARE 




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A SINGLE word of explanation will suffice to intro¬ 
duce this book to the English Public. Produced 
in the South as a thoroughly Confederate work, re¬ 
produced in the North with the sanction of the Federal 
Government, it has achieved a literary success unpre¬ 
cedented in Richmond, and unusual in New York. 
While the North abounds in historical works on the war, 
this is the only important Southern narrative of the 
political, military, and naval operations that has reached 
us. Hence it is presumed this reprint will supply a real 
want. One or two copies only of the original Richmond 
edition, printed in July, 1862 , are known to be in Lon¬ 
don. This is an exact reprint of the second and enlarged 
Richmond edition published in September last, with the 
narrative brought down to that date. The only additions 
are the four portraits and the map. 

The work, as a Southern picture, will no doubt in¬ 
terest the reader of Southern sentiments in this country ; 
while, such is the varied hue of political truth, he with 
Northern sympathies will perhaps find his opinions sup¬ 
ported by it. It is not a little remarkable that, while 
few are disposed to dispute Mr. Pollard’s claim to be con¬ 
sidered ‘ honest, fair, independent, and outspoken,’ the 
friends of the North believe that a wide circulation in this 
country of ‘ The First Year of the War’ will, on the 
whole, promote the Federal cause. 

H. S. 


4, Trafalgar Square, London, 
June 10, 1863. 











' 

■ 













SOUTHERN HISTORY OF THE WAR. 


THE 


FIRST YEAR OF THE AYAR 


EEPEINTED FROM THE EICHMOND COEHECTED EDITION 


NEW YORK: 

CHARLES B. RICHARDSON, 

594 & 596 BROADWAY. 

1863. 





Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, 

By CHAELES B. RICHARDSON, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 


RENNIE, SHEA & LINDSAY, 

Stekeotypers and Electrotypers, CRAIGHEAD, Printer, 

81, 83, and 85 Centre-street, 81, 83 S5 Centre-Street, N. Y. 

New York. 


THE 





OF THE WAR 


BY 


EDWARD A. POLLARD, 

AUTHOR OF “BLACK DIAMONDS,” ETC. 




CORRECTED AND IMPROVED EDITION. 


RICHMOND: 

WEST & JOHNSTON, 145 MAIN STREET. 

1 862 . 




Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1862, 

By WEST & JOHNSTON, 

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Confederate States for the Eastern 

District of Virginia. 


CHAS. II. WYNNE, PRINTER. 




PREFACE. 


It is scarcely necessary to state that the following pages 
have been written without any thing like literary ambition. 
They have been composed by the author, with but little aid, 
within the short period of three months, and in the midst of 
exacting occupations in the editorial department of a daily 
newspaper. 

These explanations are not made to disarm criticism. Their 
purpose is only to define the claim which the author’s work 
makes at the bar of public criticism. He does not pretend to 
have written a brilliant or elaborate book; but he does claim 
to have composed, without seeking after literary ornaments, or 
taxing his style with intellectual refinements, a compact, faith 
ful, and independent popular narrative of the events of the 
first year of the existing war. 

The author acknowledges some assistance from Mr. B. M. 
DeWitt, in the collection of materials. He has but little other 
of obligation to express, except to his publishers, Messrs. West 
& Johnston, of Richmond, to whom he would make a public 
acknowledgment for their generous encouragement, liberality, 
and enterprising endeavors, which have enabled him, under 
many inauspicious circumstances, to complete his work. 


Richmond , Virginia , July, 1862. 









PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 


The author, in presenting to the public a second edition of his work, 
has taken occasion to correct some errors, to make material annotations, 
and to add a supplementary chapter, tracing the progress and develop¬ 
ments of the war from the concluding point of the first year of its his¬ 
tory to the period of publication. 

He desires to make his grateful acknowledgments for the favor with 
which his work has already been received by the public; for numerous 
kind notices of the newspaper press, and for words of encouragement 
spoken by many whom he is proud to call his friends. The success with 
which his work has so far met, being unprecedented, he believes, in the 
literary enterprises of the South, has surprised and gratified the author. 
He protests, however, that, under any circumstances, he has but little 
literary vanity to be inflated; that he composed his work in haste, with 
neither time nor purpose to polish his style, or to captivate the taste of 
readers, and that he is content to ascribe the success of his book to the 
fact that, though rudely written and imperfect in many particulars, it is, 
as he believes, honest, fair, independent, and outspoken. 

While such has been the general character of the reception given his 
book by the public, the author is sensible that some attacks have been 
made upon it from malicious and disappointed sources, and that the 
honest record which he has attempted of the truth of history, has been 
encountered by many unjust, ignorant, and contemptible criticisms, 
emanating mainly from favorites of the government and literary slatterns 
in the Departments. The author has made no attempt to conciliate 
either these creatures or their masters; he is not in the habit of toady¬ 
ing to great men, and courting such public whores as “ official” news¬ 
papers ; he is under no obligations to any man living to flatter him, to 
tell lies, or to abate any thing from the honest convictions of his mind. 
He proposed to write an independent history of some of the events of 
the existing war. He is willing for his work to be judged by the strict¬ 
est rule of truth; he asks no favors for it, in point of accuracy; he only 
protests against a rule of criticism, which exalts paid panegyric above 
honest truth, and reduces the level of the historian to that of the scrubs 
and scribblers who write poetry and puffs in newspaper corners. 



2 


PREFACE. 


The flatterer’s idea of the history of the present war would no doubt 
be to plaster the government with praises; to hide all the faults of the 
people of the South while gilding their virtues; to make, for a consid¬ 
eration, especial mention” of all the small trash in the army; to coat 
his puffs thickly with fine writing and tremendous adjectives; and to 
place over the whole painted and gilded mass of falsehood, the figure of 
Mr. Jefferson Davis, as the second Daniel come to judgment. The au¬ 
thor has no ambition to gratify in these literary elegances. 

In the eyes of the historian the person of Mr. Jefferson Davis is no 
more sacred than that of the meanest agent in human affairs. The au¬ 
thor has not been disposed to insult the dignity of office by coarse 
speeches; he recognizes a certain propriety of style even in attacking 
the grossest public abuses; but, while he has avoided indecency and 
heat of language, and has, on the other hand, not attempted the elegance 
and elevation of the literary artist, he trusts that he has given his opin¬ 
ions of the government and public persons with the decent but fearless 
and uncompromising freedom of the conscientious historian. He is cer¬ 
tain that he has given these opinions without prejudice against the Ad¬ 
ministration in this war. The danger is, in such a contest as we are 
waging, that we will be too favorably and generously disposed towards 
the government, rather than prejudiced against it—that we will be blind 
to its faults, rather than eager and exacting in their exposure. 

The author is aware that the views expressed in this work of the autoc¬ 
racy of President Davis, and the extraordinary absorption in himself of 
all the offices of the government, have been resented with much temper 
by critics in some of the newspapers. He would ask these persons who 
are so anxious to vindicate the character of Mr. Davis in this respect, for 
a single instance in the history of the war, where the Cabinet has inter¬ 
posed any views of its own, addressed any counsel to the government, or 
been any thing more than a collection of dummies. In all our experience 
hitherto of republican government, we hear of views of the Cabinet and 
the counsel of this or that member. In this war these common observa¬ 
tions are lacking; the Cabinet is dumb or absolutely servile; we have 
never heard a syllable from it on a single question of national importance, 
and the voice of the President alone decides the conduct of the war, 
distributes the patronage of the government, and forces into practice the 
constitutional fiction of himself being the commander-in-chief of our 
armies. These facts are notorious in the streets of Richmond. 

The Cabinet of President Davis has really no constitutional existence 
The Cabinet has many objects to serve in our system of government. I\ 
was designed as a check to Executive power; it was intended to cull 
and collect the wisdom of the country in the management of public af- 


PREFACE. 


3 


fairs; it shares the qualities of a popular system of representation with 
the conservatism and virtues of aristocracy; it constitutes the highest 
and gravest council in our form of government. Certainly not one of 
these constitutional offices has been fulfilled by the Cabinet offPresident 
Davis, and history is forced to confess that the harmouy of our govern¬ 
ment has been deranged by striking from it an important, valuable, and 
essential part. 

The author is sensible that another ignorant rule of criticism besides 
that of the professional political flatterer, has been unjustly applied to his 
work. He is informed that there are persons so childish and contempt¬ 
ibly ignorant as to have decried his work on the ground that it has ex¬ 
posed abuses in our administration, and faults in our people, which will 
be a gratification and comfort to the enemy. The objection is simply 
absurd and contemptible. Throwing out of consideration the interest of 
truth, it is surely much better, even on the narrow ground of expediency, 
to expose abuses, and to let the enemy have what pleasure and comfort 
he can from them, than to permit them, unnoticed and uncorrected, to 
sap the strength of our country, and publish their conclusion to the 
world in the ultimate ruin of our cause. There are ignoramuses in the 
Southern Confederacy who think it necessary in this war that all the 
books and newspapers in the country should publish every thing in the 
South in couleur de rose ; drunken patriots, cowards in epaulets, crippled 
toadies, and men living on the charity of Jefferson Davis, trained to damn 
all newspapers and publications in the South for pointing out abuses in 
places of authority, for the sage reason that knowledge of these abuses 
will comfort the enemy and tickle the ears of the Yankees. These 
creatures would have a history written which would conceal all the 
shortcomings of our administration, and represent that our army was 
perfect in discipline, and immaculate in morals; that our people were 
feeding on milk and honey; that our generalship was without fault, and 
that Jefferson Davis .was the most perfect and admirable man since the 
days of Moses—all for the purpose of wearing a false mask to the enemy. 
They would betray our cause while hoodwinking the enemy; they would 
make a virtue of falsehood; they would destroy the independence of all 
published thought in the country. The author spits upon the criticisms 
of such creatures. 

So much the author has thought it necessary to say with reference to> 
two classes of critics, who have attacked not only his book, but every 
form of free and independent thought in the country. With reference 
to the public, confident as the author is of the rectitude of their decision, 
he is content to submit his work to their judgment, without importuning 
their favor. 


4 


PREFACE. 


Finally, the author begs to make, without temper and in the fewest 
words, a plain and summary vindication of the character and objects of 
his work. 

Every candid mind must be sensible of the futility of attempting 
high order of historical composition in the treatment of recent and in¬ 
complete events; but it does not follow that the contemporary annal, the 
popular narrative, and other inferior degrees of history, can have no 
value and interest, because they cannot compete in accuracy with the 
future retrospect of events. The vulgar notion of history is, that it is a 
record intended for posterity. The author contends that history has an 
office to perform in the present, and that one of the greatest values of 
contemporary annals is to vindicate in good time to the world the fame 
and reputation of nations. 

With this object constantly in view, the author has composed this 
work. He will accomplish his object and be rewarded with a complete 
satisfaction, if his unpretending book shall have the effect of promoting 
more extensive inquiries; enlightening the present; vindicating the 
principles of a great contest to the contemporary world; and putting be¬ 
fore the living generation, in a convenient form of literature, and at an 
early and opportune time, the name and deeds of our people. 


Bichmond, September, 1862 . 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I. 

Delusive Ideas of the Union.—Administration of John Adams.—The “ Strict Con¬ 
structionists.”—The “ State Eights” Men in the North.—The Missouri Eestriction.— 
General Jackson and the Nullification Question.—The Compromise Measures of 1850. 
—History of the Anti-Slavery Party.—The “Pinckney Eesolutions.”—The Twenty- 
first Rule.—The Abolitionists in the Presidential Canvass of 1852.—The Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill.—The Rise and Growth of the Republican Party.—The Election of 
President Buchanan.—The Kansas Controversy.—“Lecompton” and “ Anti-Lecomp- 
ton.”—Results of the Kansas Controversy.—The John Brown Raid.—“ Helper’s 
Book.”—Demoralization of the Northern Democratic Party.—The Faction of Stephen 
A. Douglas.—The Alabama Resolutions.—The Political Platforms of 1860.—Election 
of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.—Analysis of the Vote.—Political 
Condition of the North.—Secession of South Carolina.—Events in Charleston Harbor. 
—Disagreements in Mr. Buchanan’s Cabinet.—The Secession Movement in Progress. 
—Peace Measures in Congress.—The Crittenden Resolutions.—The Peace Congress.— 
Policy of the Border Slave States.—Organization of the Confederate States Govern¬ 
ment.—President Buchanan.—Incoming of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln. 
—Strength of the Revolution. Page 11 


CHAPTER H. 

Mr. Lincoln’s Journey to Washington.—Ceremonies of the Inauguration.—The In¬ 
augural Speech of President Lincoln.—The Spirit of the New Administration.—Its Fi¬ 
nancial Condition.—Embassy from the Southern Confederacy.—Perfidious Treatment 
of the Southern Commissioners.—Preparations for War.—The Military Bills of the 
Confederate Congress.—General Beauregard.—Fortifications of Charleston Harbor.— 
Naval Preparations of the Federal Government.—Attempted Reinforcement of Fort 
Sumter.—Perfidy of the Federal Government.—Excitement in Charleston.—Reduction 
of Fort Sumter by the Confederate Forces.—How the News was received in Wash¬ 
ington.—Lincoln’s Calculation.—His Proclamation of War.— The “ Reaction” in the 
North.—Displays of Rancor towards the South.—Northern Democrats.—Replies of 
Southern Governors to Lincoln’s Requisition for Troops.—Spirit of the South.—Seces¬ 
sion of Virginia.—Maryland.—The Baltimore Riot.—Patriotic Example of Missouri.— 
Lincoln’s Proclamation blockading the Southern Ports.—General Lee.—The Federals 
evacuate Harper’s Fei;ry.—Burning of the Navy Yard at Norfolk.—The Second 
Secessionary Movement.—Spirit of Patriotic Devotion in the South.—Supply of 
Arms in the South.—The Federal Government and the State of Maryland.—The Pros¬ 
pect.... Page 41 





6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER III. 


Confidence of the North.—Characteristic Boasts—“ Crushing out the Rebellion.”— 
Volunteering in the Northern Cities—The New York “Invincibles.”—Misrepresenta¬ 
tions of the Government at Washington.—Mr. Seward’s Letter to the French Govern¬ 
ment.—Another Call for Federal Volunteers.—Opening Movements of the Campaign. 
—The Federal Occupation of Alexandria.—Death of Col. Ellsworth.—Fortress Mon¬ 
roe.—The Battle of Bethel. —Results of this Battle.—Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.— 
The Upper Potomac.—Evacuation and Destruction of Harper’s Ferry.—The Move¬ 
ments in the Upper Portion of the Valley of Virginia.—Northwestern Virginia.—The 
Battle of Rich Mountain.— Carrock’s Ford.—The Retreat of the Confederates.— 
General McClellan.—Meeting of the Federal Congress.—Mr. Lincoln’s Message.— 
Kentucky.—Western Virginia—Large Requisitions for Men and Money by the Fed¬ 
eral Government.—Its Financial Condition.—Financial Measures of the Southern 
Confederacy.—Contrast between the Ideas of the Rival Governments.—Conserva¬ 
tism of the Southern Revolution.—Despotic Excesses of the Government at Wash¬ 
ington. Page 70 


CHAPTER IY. 

i 

The “ Grand Army” of the North.—General McDowell.—The Affair of Bull Run.— 
An Artillery Duel.— The Battle of Manassas.— “ On to Richmond.”—Scenery of the 
Battle-field.—Crises in the Battle.—Devoted Courage of the Confederates.— The Rout. 
—How the News was received in Washington.—How it was received in the South.— 
General Bee.—Colonel Bartow.—The Great Error.—General Johnston’s Excuses for 
not advancing on Washington.— Incidents of the Manassas Battle.Page 95 


CHAPTER Y. 

Results of the Manassas Battle in the North.—General Scott.—McClellan, “ the 
Young Napoleon.”—Energy of the Federal Government.—The Bank Loan.—Events 
in the West.—The Missouri Campaign. —Governor Jackson’s Proclamation.—Sterling 
Price.—The Affair of Booneville.—Organization of the Missouri forces.—The Battle 
of Carthage.— General McCulloch. — The Battle of Oak Hill.— Death of General 
Lyon.—The Confederate Troops leave Missouri.—Operations in Northern Missouri.— 
General Harris.—General Price’s march towards the Missouri.—The Affair at Dry- 
wood Creek.—The Battle of Lexington. —The Jayhawkers.—The Victory of “ the 
Five Hundred.”—General Price’s Achievements.—His Retreat, and the necessity for 
it.—Operations of General Jeff. Thompson in Southeastern Missouri.—The Affair of 
Fredericktown.—General Price’s passage of the Osage River.—Secession of Missouri 
from the Federal Union.—Fremont superseded.—The Federal forces in Missouri de¬ 
moralized.—General Price at Springfield.—Review of his Campaign.— Sketch of 
General Price.— Coldness of the Government towards him. Page 124 


CHAPTER YI. 

The Campaign in Western Virginia.—General Wise’s Command.—Political Influ¬ 
ences in Western Virginia.—The Affair of Scary Creek.—Gen«-al Wise’s Retreat to 
Lewisburg.—General Floyd’s Brigade.—The Affair at Cross Lanes.—Movements on 
the Gauley.—The Affair of Carnifax Ferry.—Disagreement between Generals Floyd 





# • 


. * ■*. I 

CONTENTS. ' 7 

and "Wise.—The Tyrees.—A Patriotic Woman.—Movements in Northwestern Vir¬ 
ginia.—General Lee.—The Enemy intrenched on Cheat Mountain.—General Eose- 
crans.—Failure of General Lee’s Plan of Attack.—He removes to the Kanawha Re¬ 
gion.—The Opportunity of a Decisive Battle lost.—Retreat of Rosecrans.—General 
H. R. Jackson’s Affair on the Greenbrier.—The Approach of Winter.—The Campaign 
in Western Virginia abandoned.—The Affair on the Alleghany.—General Floyd at 
Cotton Hill.—His masterly Retreat.—Review of the Campaign in Western Virginia.— 
Some of its Incidents.—Its Failure and unfortunate Results.—Other Movement^ in 
Virginia. — The Potomac Line.—The Battle of Leesburg. —Overweening Confidence 
of the South. Page 159 


CHAPTER VII. . 

The Position and Policy of Kentucky in the War.—Kentucky Chivalry.—Reminis¬ 
cences of the “ Dark and Bloody Ground.”—Protection of the Northwest by Ken¬ 
tucky.—How the Debt of Gratitude has been repaid.—A Glance at the Hartford. 
Convention.—The Gubernatorial Canvass of 1859 in Kentucky.—Division of Parties.— 
Other Causes for the Disloyalty of Kentucky.—The “ Pro-Slavery and Union” Resolu¬ 
tions.—The “ State Guard.”—General Buckner.—The Pretext of “ Neutrality,” and 
what it meant.—The Kentucky Refugees.—A Reign of Terror.—Judge Monroe in 
Nashville.—General Breckinridge.—Occupation of Columbus by General Polk.—The 
Neutrality of Kentucky first broken by the North.—General Buckner at Bowling 
Green.—Camp “ Dick Robinson.”—The “ Home Guard.”—The Occupation of Colum¬ 
bus by the Confederates explained.—Cumberland Gap.—General Zollicoff'er’s Procla¬ 
mation.—The Affair of Barboursville.—“The Wild-Cat Stampede.”—The Virginia 
and Kentucky Border.—The Affair of Piketon.—Suffering of our Troops at Pound 
Gap.—The “Union Party” in East Tennessee.—Keelan, the Hero of Strawberry 
Plains.-S'-The Situation on the Waters of the Ohio and Tennessee.— The Battle of 
Belmont. —Weakness of our Forces in Kentucky.—General Albert Sidney Johnston.— 
Inadequacy of his Forces at Bowling Green.—Neglect and Indifference of the Con¬ 
federate Authorities.— A Crisis imminent.—Admission of Kentucky into the Southern 
Confederacy..'. Page 183 


CHAPTER VIII. 

Prospects of European Interference.—The selfish Calculations of England.—Effects 
of the Blockade on the South.—Arrest by Capt. Wilkes of the Southern Commission¬ 
ers.—The Indignation of England.—Surrender of the Commissioners by the Lincoln 
Government.—Mr. Seward’s Letter.— Review of Affairs at the Close of the Year 
1861 .—Apathy and Improvidence of the Southern Government.—Superiority of the 
North on the Water.—The Hatteras Expedition.—The Port Royal Expedition.—The 
Southern Privateers.—Their Failure.—Errors of Southern Statesmanship.—“King 
Cotton.”—Episodes of the War.—The Affair of Santa Rosa Island.—The Affair of 
Dranesville.—Political Measures of the South.—A weak and halting Policy.—The 
Spirit of the War in the North.—Administration of the Civil Polity of the Southern 
Army.—The Quarter-master’s Department.—Hygiene of the Camps.—Ravages of the 
Southern Army by Disease.—The Devotion of the Women of the South- Page 206 


CHAPTER IX. 

Prospects of the Year 1862.—The Lines of the Potomac.—General Jackson’s Expe¬ 
dition to Winchester.—The Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky.— General Crit- 




8 


CONTENTS-. 


tenden.—Death of General Zollicoffer.—Sufferings-' of Crittenden’s Army on the 
Eetreat.—Comparative Unimportance of the Disaster.—The Battle of Eoanoke 
Island. —Importance of the Island to the South.—Death of Captain Wise.—Causes of 
the Disaster to the South.—Investigation in Congress.—Censure of the Government.— 
Interviews of General Wise with Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of War.—Mr. Benjamin 
censured by Congress, but retained in the Cabinet.—His Promotion by President 
Davis.—Condition of the Popular Sentiment. Page 220 


CHAPTER X. 

The Situation in Tennessee and Kentucky.—The affair at Woodsonville.—Death or 
Colonel Terry.—The Strength and Material of the Federal Force in Kentucky.—Con¬ 
dition of the Defences on the Tennessee and Cumberland Kivers.—The Confederate 
Congress and the Secretary of the Navy.—The Fall of Fort Henry.—Fort Donelson 
threatened.—The Army of General A. S. Johnston.—His Interview with General 
Beauregard.—Insensibility of the Confederate Government to the Exigency.—General 
Johnston’s Plan of Action.— Battle of Fort Donelson.— Carnage and Scenery of the 
Battle-field.—The Council of the Southern Commanders.—Agreement to surrender. 
—Escape of Generals Floyd and Pillow.—The Fall of Fort Donelson develops the 
Crisis in the West.—The Evacuation of Nashville.—The Panic.—Extraordinary 
Scenes.—Experience of the Enemy in Nashville.—The Adventures of Captain John 
Morgan.—General Johnston at Murfreesboro.—Organization of a New Line of Defence 
South of Nashville.—The Defence of Memphis and the Mississippi.—Island No. 10.— 
Serious Character of the Disaster at Donelson.—Generals Floyd and Pillow “ re¬ 
lieved from Command.”—General Johnston’s Testimony in favor of these Officers.— 
President Davis’s Punctilio.—A sharp Contrast.—Negotiation for the Exchange of 
Prisoners.—A Lesson of Yankee Perfidy.—Mr. Benjamin’s Kelease of Yankee 
Hostages. Page 285 


CHAPTER XI. 

Organization of the permanent Government of the South.—The Policy of England. 
—Declaration of Earl Bussell.—Onset of the Northern Forces.—President Davis’s 
Message to Congress.—The Addition of New States and Territories to the Southern 
Confederacy.—Our Indian Allies.—The Financial Condition, North and South.—De¬ 
ceitful Prospects of Peace.—Effect of the Disasters to the South.—Action of Congress. 
—The Conscript Bill.—Provisions vs. Cotton.—Barbarous Warfare of the North.—The 
Anti-slavery Sentiment.—How it was unmasked in the War.—Emancipation Measures 
in the Federal Congress.—Spirit of the Southern People.—The Administration of Jef¬ 
ferson Davis.—His Cabinet.—The Defensive Policy. — The Naval Engagement in 
Hampton Boads.— Iron-clad Vessels.—What the Southern Government might have 
done.—The Narrative of General Price’s Campaign resumed.—His Eetreat into Ar¬ 
kansas.—The Battle of Elk Horn.— Criticism of the Eesult.—Death of General Mc¬ 
Culloch. — The Battle of Valverde.— The Foothold of the Confederates in New 
Mexico.—Change of the Plan of Campaign in Virginia. - Abandonment of the Potomao 
Line by the Confederates.—The Battle of Kernstown.— Colonel Turner Ashby.— 
Appearance of McClellan’s Army on the Peninsula.—Firmness of General Magruder. 
—The New Situation of the War in Virginia.—Becurrence of Disasters to the South 
on the Water.—The Capture of Newbern.—Fall of Fort Pulaski and Fort Macon.— 
Common Sense vs. “ West Point.”. Page 259 





CONTENTS. 


9 


CHAPTER XII. 

The Campaign in the Mississippi Valley.-Bombardment of Island No. 10.—The 
Scenes, Incidents, and Besults.—Fruits of the Northern Victory.—Movements of the 
Federals on the Tennessee River.—The Battle of Shiloh.— A “Lost Opportunity.” 
—Death of General Albert Sidney Johnston.—Comparison between the Battles of 
Shiloh and Manassas.—The Federal Expeditions into North Alabama.—Withdrawal 
of the Confederate Forces from the Trans-Mississippi District.—General Price and 
his Command.—The Fall of New Orleans.— The Flag Imbroglio.—Major-general 
Butler.—Causes of the Disaster.—Its Results and Consequences.—The Fate of the 
Valley of the Mississippi.*. Page 291 


CHAPTER XHI. 

CONCLUSION. 

Prospects of the War.—The Extremity of the South.—Lights and Shadows of the 
Campaign in Virginia.—Jackson’s Campaign in the Valley.—The Policy of Concen¬ 
tration.—Sketch of the Battles around Richmond.—Effect of McClellan’s Defeat upon 
the North.—President Davis’s congratulatory Order.—The War as a great Money 
Job.— Note: Gen. Washington’s Opinion of the Northern People.—Statement of the 
Northern Finances.—Yankee Venom.—Gen. Pope’s Military Orders.—Summary of 
the War Legislation of the Northern Congress.—Retaliation on the part of the Con¬ 
federacy.—The Cartel.—Prospects of European Interference.—English Statesmanship. 
—Progress of the War in the West.—The Defence of Vicksburg.—Morgan’s great 
Raid,—The Tennessee-Virginia Frontier.—A Glance at the Confederate Congress.— 
Mr. Foote and the Cabinet.—The Campaign in Virginia again.—Rapid Movements 
and famous March of the Southern Troops.— The signal Victory of the Thirtieth of 
August on the Plains of Manassas. —Reflections on the War.—Some of its Character¬ 
istics.—A Review of its Military Results.—Three Moral Benefits of the War.—Pros¬ 
pects and Promises of the Future. Page 322 













. 












THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


CHAPTER I. 


Delusive Ideas of the Union.—Administration of John Adams.—The “Strict Con¬ 
structionists.”—The “State Rights” Men in the North.—The Missouri Restriction.— 
General Jackson and the Nullification Question.—The Compromise Measures of 1850. 
—History of the Anti-Slavery Party.—The “Pinckney Resolutions.”—The Twenty- 
first Rule.—The Abolitionists in the Presidential Canvass of 1852.—The Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill.—The Rise and Growth of the Republican Party.—The Election of 
President Buchanan.—The Kansas Controversy.—“ Lecompton” and “ Anti-Lecomp- 
ton.”—Results of the Kansas Controversy.—The John Brown Raid.—“ Helper’s 
Book.”—Demoralization of the Northern Democratic Party.—The Faction of Stephen 
A. Douglas.—The Alabama Resolutions.—The Political Platforms of 1860.—Election 
of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.—Analysis of the Vote.—Political 
Condition of the North.—Secession of South Carolina.—Events in Charleston Harbor. 
—Disagreements in Mr. Buchanan’s Cabinet.—The Secession Movement in Progress. 
—Peace Measures in Congress.—The Crittenden Resolutions.—The Peace Congress.— 
Policy of the Border Slave States.—Organization of the Confederate States Govern¬ 
ment.—President Buchanan.—Incoming of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln. 
—Strength of the Revolution. 


The American people of tlie present generation were born 
in the' belief that the Union of the States was destined to be 
perpetual. A few minds rose superior to this natal delusion; 
the early history of the Union itself was not without premoni¬ 
tions of decay and weakness; and yet it may be said that the 
belief in its permanency was, in the early part of the present 
generation, a popular and obstinate delusion, that embraced 
the masses of the country. 

The foundations of this delusion had been deeply laid in the- 
early history of the country, and had been sustained by a false, 
but ingenious prejudice. It was busily represented, especially 
by demagogues in the North, that the Union was the fruit of 
the Revolution of 1776, and had been purchased by the blood 
of our forefathers. Ho fallacy could have been more erroneous 

in fact, more insidious in its display, or more effective in ad- 

2 



12 


TIIE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


dressing the passions of the multitude. The Revolution achiev¬ 
ed our national independence, and the Union had no connection 
with it other than consequence in point of time. It was founded, 
as any other civil institution, in the exigencies and necessities 
of a certain condition of society, and had no other claim to 
popular reverence and attachment than what might be found 
in its own virtues. 

But it was not only the captivating fallacy that the Union 
was hallowed by the blood of a revolution, and this false in¬ 
spiration of reverence for it, that gave the popular idea of its 
power and permanency. Its political character was misunder¬ 
stood by a large portion of the American people. The idea 
predominated in the North, and found toleration in the South, 
that the Revolution of ’76, instead of securing the independ¬ 
ence of thirteen States, had resulted in the establishment of a 
grand consolidated government to be under the absolute con¬ 
trol of a numerical majority. The doctrine was successfully 
inculcated; it had some plausibility, and brought to its sup¬ 
port an array of revolutionary names; but it was, nevertheless, 
in direct opposition to the terms of the Constitution—the bond 
of the Union—which defined the rights of the States and the 
limited powers of the General Government. 

The first President from the North, John Adams, asserted 
and essayed to put in practice the supremacy of the “Na¬ 
tional ’ power over the States and the citizens thereof. He 
was sustained in his attempted usurpations by all the New 
England States and by a powerful public sentiment in each of 
the Middle States. The “strict constructionists” of the Con¬ 
stitution were not slow in raising the standard of opposition 
against a pernicious error. With numbers and the most con¬ 
spicuous talents in the country they soon effected the organi¬ 
zation of a party; and, under the leadership of Jefferson and 
Madison, they rallied their forces and succeeded in overthrow¬ 
ing the Yankee Administration, but only after a tremendous 
struggle. 

From the inauguration of Mr. Jefferson, in 1801, the Federal 
Government continued uninterruptedly in Southern hands for 
the space of twenty-four years. A large proportion of the active 
politicians of the North pretended to give in their adhesion to 
the State Rights school of politics; but, like all the alliances 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


IB 


of Northern politicians with the South—selfish, cunning, ex¬ 
travagant of professions, carefully avoiding trials of its fidelity, 
unhealthy, founded on a sentiment of treachery to its own 
section, and educated in perfidy—it was a deceitful union, and 
could not withstand the test of a practical question. 

While acting with the South on empty or accidental issues, 
the “ State Rights” men of the North were, for all practical 
purposes, the faithful allies of the open and avowed consolida- 
tionists on the question that most seriously divided the country 
—that of negro slavery. Their course on the admission of 
Missouri aflorded early and conclusive evidence of the secret 
disposition of all parties in the North. With very few excep¬ 
tions, in and out of Congress, the North united in the original 
demand of the prohibition of slavery in the new State as the 
indispensable condition of the admission of Missouri into the 
Union ; although the people of Missouri, previous to their 
application to Congress, had decided to admit within its juris¬ 
diction the domestic institution of the South. The result of the 
contest was equally unfavorable to the rights of the South 
and to the doctrine of the constitutional equality of the States 
in the Union. The only approach that the North was willing 
to make to this fundamental doctrine was to support a “ com¬ 
promise,” by which slavery was to be tolerated in one part of 
the Missouri Territory and to be forever excluded from the 
remaining portion. The issue of the controversy was not only 
important to the slave interest, but afforded a new develop¬ 
ment of the Northern political ideas of consolidation and the 
absolutism of numerical majorities. The North had acted on 
the Missouri matter as though the South had no rights guaran¬ 
teed in the bond of the Union, and as though the question at 
issue was one merely of numerical strength, where the defeated 
party had no alternative but submission. “The majority must 
govern” was the decantatum on the lips of every demagogue, 
and passed into a favorite phrase of Northern politics. 

The results of the acquiescence of the South in the wrong of 
the Missouri Restriction could not fail to strengthen the idea 
in the North of the security of the Union, and to embolden its 
people to the essay of new aggressions. Many of their poli¬ 
ticians did not hesitate to believe that the South was prepared 
to pledge herself to the perpetuity of the Union upon Northern 


14 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


terms. Tlie fact was, that she had made a clear concession of 
principle for the sake of the Union; and the inference was 
plain and logical, that her devotion to it exceeded almost 
every other political trust, and that she would be likely to 
prefer any sacrifice rather than the irreverent one of the Union 
of the States. 

The events of succeeding years confirmed the Northern 
opinion that the Union was to be perpetuated as a consolidated 
government. It is not to be denied that the consolidationists 
derived much comfort from the course of President Jackson, 
in the controversy between the General Government and the 
State of South Carolina, that ensued during the second term 
of his administration. But they were hasty and unfair in the 
interpretation of the speeches of a choleric and immoderate 
politician. They seized upon a sentiment offered by the Presi¬ 
dent at the Jefferson anniversary dinner, in the second year of 
his first term—“ The Federal Union—it must be preserved ”— 
to represent him as a u coercionist” in principle; and, indeed, 
they found reason to contend that their construction of these 
words was fully sustained in General Jackson’s famous procla¬ 
mation and official course against Nullification. 

General Jackson subsequently explained away, in a great 
measure, the objectionable doctrines of his proclamation ; and 
his emphatic declaration that the Union could not be preserved 
by force was one of the practical testimonies of his wisdom 
that he left to posterity. But the immediate moral and political 
effects of his policy in relation to South Carolina were, upon 
the whole, decidedly unfavorable to the State Eights cause. 
His approval of the Force Bill gave to the consolidationists 
the benefit of his great name and influence at a most import¬ 
ant juncture. The names of “ Jackson and the Union” be¬ 
came inseparable in the public estimation; and the idea was 
strongly and vividly impressed upon the public mind, that the 
great Democrat was “ a Union man” at all hazards and to the 
last extremity. 

The result of .the contest between South Carolina and the 
General Government is well known. The Palmetto State 
came out of it with an enviable reputation for spirit and 
chivalry ; but the settlement of the question contributed to 
the previous popular impressions of the power and perm a- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


15 


nency of the Union. The idea of the Union became what it 
continued to he for a quarter of a century thereafter—extrav¬ 
agant and sentimental. The people were unwilling to stop to 
analyze an idea after it had once become the subject of enthu¬ 
siasm ; and the mere name of the “ Union,” illustrating, as it 
did, the power of words over the passions of the multitude, 
remained for years a signal of the country’s glory and of 
course the motto of ambitious politicians and the favorite 
theme of demagogues. This unnatural tumor was not pecu¬ 
liar to any party or any portion of the country. It was deeply 
planted in the Northern mind, but prevailed also, to a consid¬ 
erable extent, in the South. Many of the Southern politicians 
came to the conclusion that they could best succeed in their 
designs as advocates and eulogists of what was paraphrased as 
“ the glorious Unionand for a long time the popular voice 
of the South seemed to justify their conclusion. 

The settlement of the sectional difficulties of 1850, which 
grew out of the admission of the territory acquired by the 
Mexican War, was but a repetition of the “ Compromise” of 
1820, so far as it implied a surrender of the rights of the 
South and of the principle of constitutional equality. The 
appeals urged in behalf of the Union had the usual effect of 
reconciling the South to the sacrifice required of her, and 
embarrassed any thing like resistance on the part of her rep¬ 
resentatives in Congress to the “ compromise measures” of 
1850. South Carolina was the only one of the Southern 
States ready at this time to take the bold and adventurous 
initiative of Southern independence. In justice, however, to 
the other States of the South, it must be stated, that in agree¬ 
ing to what was called, in severe irony or in wretched igno¬ 
rance, the “ Compromise” of 1850, they declared that it was 
the last concession they would make to the North ; that they 
took it as a “ finality,” and that they would resist any further 
aggression on their rights, even to the extremity of the rupture 
of the Union. 

This declaration of spirit was derided by the North. The 
anti-slavery sentiment became holder with success. Stimu¬ 
lated by secret jealousies and qualified for success by the low 
and narrow cunning of fanaticism, it had grown up by indirec¬ 
tion, and aspired to the complete overthrow of the peculiar 


16 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


institution that had distinguished the people of the South from 
those of the North, by a larger happiness, greater ease of life, 
and a superior tone of character. Hypocrisy, secretiveness, 
a rapid and unhealthy growth, and at last the unmasked spirit 
of defiance, were the incidents of the history of the anti¬ 
slavery sentiment in the North, from the beginning of its 
organization to the last and fatal strain of its insolence and 
power. 

Until a comparatively recent period, the Northern majority 
disavowed all purpose of abolishing or interfering in any 
way with the institution of slavery in any State, Territory, 
or District where it existed. On the contrary, they declared 
their readiness to give their “Southern brethren” the most 
satisfactory guaranties for the security of their slave property. 
They cloaked their designs under the disguise of the Eight of 
Petition and other concealments equally demagogical. From 
the organization of the government, petitions for the abolition 
of slavery, signed in every instance by but a few persons, and 
most of them women, had, at intervals, been sent into Con¬ 
gress ; but they were of such apparent insignificance that they 
failed to excite any serious apprehensions on the part of the 
South. In the year 1836, these petitions were multiplied, and 
many were sent into both Houses of Congress from all parts 
of the North. An excitement began. On motion of Mr. 
H. L. Pinckney, of South Carolina, a resolution was adopted 
by the House of Eepresentatives, to refer to a select commit¬ 
tee all anti-slavery memorials then before that body, or that 
might thereafter be sent in, with instructions to report against 
the prayers of the petitioners and the reasons for such con¬ 
clusion. 

On the 18th of May, 1836, the committee made a unanimous 
report, through Mr. Pinckney, its chairman, concluding with a 
series of resolutions, the last of which was as follows : 

“ Resolved , That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers 
relating, in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or 
the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid 
upon the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon.” 

The resolutions were carried by a vote of 117 yeas to 68 
nays. A majority of the Northern members voted against the 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


IT 


resolution, alth >ugli there was then scarcely an avowed Aboli¬ 
tionist among them. They professed to he in favor of pro¬ 
tecting the slaveholder in his right of property, and yet de¬ 
clared by their votes, as well as by their speeches, that the 
right of petition to rob him of his property was too sacred to 
be called in question. 

The passage of the “ Pinckney resolutions,” as they were 
called, did not silence the anti-slavery agitation in the House. 
In the month of December, 1837, a remarkable scene was 
enacted in that body, during the proceedings on a motion of 
Mr. Slade, of Yermont, to refer two memorials praying the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia to a select 
committee. Mr. Slade, in urging his motion, was violent in 
his denunciations of slavery, and he spoke for a considerable 
time amid constant interruptions and calls to order. At length, 
Mr. Rliett, of South Carolina, called upon the entire delega¬ 
tion from all the slaveholding States to retire from the hall, 
and to meet in the room of the Committee on the District of 
Columbia. A large number of them did meet for consultation 
in the room designated. The meeting, however, resulted in 
nothing but an agreement upon the following resolution to be 
presented to the House : 

“ Resolved , That all petitions, memorials, and papers touching the abolition 
of slavery, or the buying, selling, or transferring of slaves in any State, Dis 
trict, or Territory of the United States, be laid on the table without being 
debated, printed, read, or referred, and that no further action whatever shall 
be had thereon.” 

This resolution was presented to the House by Mr. Patton, 
of Virginia, and was adopted by a vote of 122 to 74. 

In the month of January, 1840, the House of Representa¬ 
tives, on motion of Mr. W. Cost Johnson, of Maryland, 
adopted what was known as the “ Twenty-first Rule,” which 
prohibited the reception of all Abolition petitions, memorials, 
and resolutions. 

The Twenty-first Rule was rescinded in December, 1844, on 
motion of John Quincy Adams, by a vote of 108 to 80. Sev¬ 
eral efforts were afterwards made to restore it, but without 
success. The Northern people would not relinquish what they 
termed a “ sacred right”—that of petitioning the government, 


18 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


through their representatives in Congress, to deprive the 
Southern people of their property. 

During the agitation in Congress upon the right of petition, 
there was, as before stated, but very few open and avowed 
Abolitionists in either House, and the declaration was repeat¬ 
edly made by members that the party w T as contemptibly small 
in every free State in the Union. Mr. Pierce, of New Hamp¬ 
shire (afterwards President of the United States), declared, in 
1837, in his place in Congress, that there were not two hun¬ 
dred Abolitionists in his State; and Mr. Webster, about the 
same time, represented their numbers in Massachusetts as quite 
insignificant. Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, with charac¬ 
teristic sagacity, replied to these representations, and predicted 
that “Mr. Webster and all Northern statesmen would, in a few 
years, yield to the storm of Abolition fanaticism and be over¬ 
whelmed by it.” The prophecy was not more remarkable than 
the searching analysis of Northern “ conservatism” with which 
the great South Carolinian accompanied his prediction. He 
argued that such a consequence was inevitable from the way 
in which the professed “ conservatives” of the North had in¬ 
vited the aggressions of the Abolitionists, by courteously 
granting them the right of petition, which was indeed all they 
asked; that the fanaticism of the North w T as a disease which 
required a remedy , and that palliatives would not answer, as 
Mr. Webster and men like him would find to their cost. 

In the Thirtieth Congress, that assembled in December, 
1849, the professed Abolitionists numbered about a dozen 
members. They held the balance of power between the Dem¬ 
ocratic and Whig parties in the House, and delayed its organ¬ 
ization for about a month. Both the Whig and Democratic 
parties then claimed to be conservative, and, of course, the 
opponents of the anti-slavery agitation. 

In the Presidential canvass of 1852, both Pierce and Scott 
were brought out by professed national parties, and were sup¬ 
ported in each section of the Union. John P. Hale, who ran 
upon what was called the “ straight-out” Abolition ticket, did 
not receive the vote of a single State, and but 175,296 ot 
the popular vote of the Union. The triumphant election ot 
Pierce, who was a favorite of the State Eights Democracy ot 
the South, was hailed by the sanguine friends of the Union as 



THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


19 


a fair indication of the purpose of the North to abide, in good 
faith, by the Compromise of 1850. But in this they were de¬ 
ceived, as the sequel demonstrated. 

During the first session of the first Congress under Mr. 
Pierce’s administration, the bill introduced to establish a terri¬ 
torial government for Nebraska, led to an agitation in Con¬ 
gress and the country, the consequences of which extended to 
the last period of the existence of the Union. The Committee 
on Territories in the Senate, of which Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, 
was chairman, reported the bill, which made two territories— 
Nebraska and Kansas—instead of one, and which declared 
that the Missouri Compromise act was superseded by the Com¬ 
promise measures of 1850, and had thus become inoperative. 
The phraseology of the .clause repealing the Missouri Compro¬ 
mise was drawn up by Mr. Douglas, and was not supposed at 
the time to be liable to misconstruction. It held, that the 
Missouri Compromise act, “ being inconsistent with the prin¬ 
ciples of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the 
States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, 
commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared 
inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of 
this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor 
to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof per¬ 
fectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in 
their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States.” The clause here quoted, as drawn up by Mr. Doug¬ 
las, was incorporated into the Kansas-Nebraska bill in the 
Senate on the 15th of February, 1854. The bill passed the 
House at the same session. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise caused the deepest 
excitement throughout the North. The Abolitionists were 
wild with fury. Douglas was hung in effigy at different places, 
and was threatened with personal violence in case of his per¬ 
sistence in his non-intervention policy. The rapid develop¬ 
ment of a fanatical feeling in every free State startled many 
who had but recently indulged dreams of the perpetuit}^ of the 
Constitutional Union. Abolitionism, in the guise of “ Repub¬ 
licanism” swept almost every thing before it in the North and 
Northwest in the elections of 1854 and 1855. But few pro¬ 
fessed conservatives were returned to the Thirty-first Congress; 


20 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


not enough to prevent the election of Nathaniel Banks, an ob¬ 
jectionable Abolitionist of the Massachusetts school, to the 
Speakership of the House. 

The South had supported the repeal of the Missouri Com¬ 
promise because it restored her to her rightful position of 
equality in the Union. It is true, that her representatives in 
Congress were well aware that, under the operations of the 
new act, their constituents could expect to obtain but little if 
any new accessions of slave territory, while the North would 
necessarily, from the force of circumstances, secure a number 
of new States in the Northwest, then the present direction of 
our new settlements. But viewed as an act of proscription 
against her, the Missouri Compromise was justly offensive to 
the South ; and its abrogation, in this respect, strongly recom¬ 
mended itself to her support. 

The ruliug party of the North, calling themselves “ Repub¬ 
licans,” had violently opposed the repeal of the act of 1820, 
in the same sentiment with which it was fiercely encountered 
by the Abolitionists. The two parties were practically identi¬ 
cal ; both shared the same sentiment of hostility to slavery; 
and they differed only as to the degree of indirection by which 
their purposes might best be accomplished. 

The election of Mr. Buchanan to the Presidency, in 1856, 
raised, for a time, the spirits of many of the true friends of 
the Constitutional Union. But there was very little in an 
analysis of the vote to give hope or encouragement to the pa¬ 
triot. Fremont, who ran as the anti-slavery candidate, re¬ 
ceived 1,341,812 votes of the people, and it is believed would 
have been elected by the electoral college, if the anti-Buchanan 
party in Pennsylvania had united upon him. 

The connection of events which we have sought to trace, 
brings us to the celebrated Kansas controversy, and at once to 
the threshold of the dissensions which demoralized the only 
conservative party in the country, and in less than four years 
culminated in the rupture of the Federal Union. A severe 
summary of the facts of this controversy introduces us to the 
contest of 1860, in which the Republican party, swollen with 
its triumphs in Kansas, and infecting the Democratic leaders 
in the North with the disposition to pander to the lusts of a 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 21 

growing power, obtained tlie control of the government, and 
seized the sceptre of absolute authority. 

"When Mr. Buchanan came into office, in March, 1857, he 
flattered himself with the hope that his administration would 
settle the disputes that had so long agitated and distracted the 
country ; trusting that such a result might be accomplished by 
the speedy admission of Kansas into the Union, upon the 
principles which had governed in his election. Such, at least, 
were his declarations to his friends. But before the meeting 
of Congress, in December, he had abundant evidence that his 
favorite measure would be opposed by a number of Senators 
and Representatives who had actively supported him in his 
canvass; among them the distinguished author of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, Mr. Douglas. 

In the month of July, 1855, the Legislature of the Territory 
of Kansas had passed an act to take the sense of the people 
on the subject of forming a State government, preparatory to 
admission into the Union. The election took place, and a 
large majority of the people voted in favor of holding a con¬ 
vention for the purpose of adopting a Constitution. In pur¬ 
suance of this vote, the Territorial Legislature, on the 19th of 
February, 1857, passed a law to take a census of the people, 
for the purpose of making a registry of the voters, and to elect 
delegates to the Convention. Mr. Geary, then Governor of 
Kansas, vetoed the bill for calling the Convention, for the 
reason that it did not require the Constitution, when framed, 
to be submitted to a vote of the people for adoption or rejec¬ 
tion. The bill, however, was reconsidered in each House, and 
passed by a two-thirds’ vote, and thus became a binding law 
in the Territory, despite the veto of the Governor. 

On the 20th of May, 1857, Mr. F. P. Stanton, Secretary 
and acting Governor of Kansas Territory, published his proc* 
lamation, commanding the proper officers to hold an election 
on the third Monday of June, 1857, as directed by the act re¬ 
ferred to. 

The election was held on the day appointed, and the Con¬ 
vention assembled, according to law, on the first Monday of 
September, 1857. They proceeded to form a Constitution, and, 
having finished their work, adjourned on the 7th November. 


22 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


The entire Constitution was not submitted to the popular vote; 
but the Convention took care to submit to the vote of the 
people, for ratification or rejection, the clause respecting sla¬ 
very. The official vote resulted: For the Constitution, with 
Slavery, 6,226; for the Constitution, without Slavery, 509. 

The Abolitionists, or “Free State” men, as they called them¬ 
selves, did not generally vote in this or any other election held 
under the regular government of the Territory. They defied the 
authority of this government and that of the United States, 
and acted under the direction of Emigrant Aid Societies, or¬ 
ganized by the fanatical Abolitionists of the North, to colonize 
the new territory with voters. The proceedings of this evil 
and bastard population occasioned the greatest excitement, and 
speedily inaugurated an era of disorder and rebellion in this 
distant portion of the Federal territory. 

The Free State party assembled at Topeka, in September, 
1855, and adopted what they called a “ Constitution” for Kan¬ 
sas. This so-called Constitution was submitted to the people, 
and was ratified, of course, by a large majority of those who 
voted; scarcely any but Abolitionists going to the polls. Un¬ 
der their Topeka Constitution, the Free State party elected a 
Governor and Legislature, and organized for the purpose of 
petitioning Congress for the admission of Kansas into the 
Union. The memorial of the Topeka insurgents was presented 
to the Thirty-fourth Congress. It met with a favorable re¬ 
sponse in the House of Representatives, a majority of that 
body being anti-slavery men of the New England school ; but 
found but a poor reception in the Senate, where there was still 
a majority of conservative and law-abiding men. 

On the 2d of February, 1858, Mr. Buchanan, at the request 
of the President of the Lecompton Convention, transmitted to 
Congress an authentic copy of the Constitution framed by that 
body, with a view to the admission of Kansas into the Union. 
The message of the President took strong and urgent position 
for the admission of Kansas under this Constitution; he de¬ 
fended the action of the Convention in not submitting the 
entire result of their labors to a vote of the people; he ex¬ 
plained that, when he instructed Governor Walker, in general 
terms, in favor of submitting the Constitution to the people, 
he had no other object in view beyond the all-absorbing topic 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


23 


of slavery; lie considered that, under the organic act, the 
Convention was hound to submit the all-important question of 
slavery to the people; he added, that it w T as never his opinion, 
however, that, independently of this act, the Convention would 
he hound to submit any portion of the Constitution to a popu¬ 
lar vote, in order to give it validity; and he argued the fallacy 
and unreasonableness of such an opinion, by insisting that it 
-was in opposition to the principle which pervaded our institu¬ 
tions, and which was every day carried into practice, to the 
effect that the people had the right to delegate to representa¬ 
tives, chosen by themselves, sovereign power to frame Consti¬ 
tutions, enact laws, and perform many other important acts, 
without the necessity of testing the validity of their work by 
popular approbation. The Topeka Constitution Mr. Buchanan 
denounced as the work of treason and insurrection. 

It is certain that Mr. Buchanan would have succeeded in 
effecting the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Con¬ 
stitution, if he could have secured to the measure the support 
of all the Northern Democrats who had contributed to his 
election. These, however, had become disaffected; they op¬ 
posed and assailed the measure of the Administration, acting 
under the lead of Mr. Douglas; and the long-continued and 
bitter discussion which ensued, perfectly accomplished the divi¬ 
sion of the Democratic party into two great factions, mustered 
under the names of “ Lecompton” and “ Anti-Lecompton.” 

The latter faction founded their opposition to the Adminis¬ 
tration on the grounds, that the Lecompton Constitution was 
not the act of the people of Kansas, and did not express their 
will; that only half of the counties of the Territory were rep¬ 
resented in the Convention that framed it, the other half being 
disfranchised, for no fault of their own, but from failure of the 
officers to register the voters, and entitle them to vote for 
delegates; and that the mode of submitting the Constitution 
to the people for “ ratification or rejection” was unfair, embar¬ 
rassing, and proscriptive. 

In reply, the friends of the Administration urged that twen¬ 
ty-one out of the thirty-four organized counties, of Kansas were 
embraced in the apportionment of representation; that, of the 
thirteen counties not embraced, nine had but a small population, 
as shown by the fact that, in a succeeding election, to which 


24 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


the Anti-Lecoraptonites had referred as an indication of public 
sentiment in Kansas, they polled but ninety votes in the aggre¬ 
gate; that, in the remaining four counties, the failure to register 
the voters, and the consequent loss of their representation, were 
due to the Abolitionists themselves, who refused to recognize 
all legal authority in the Territory; and that the submission 
of the Constitution, as provided by the Lecompton Convention, 
afforded a complete expression of the popular will, as the 
slavery question was the only one about which there was any 
controversy in Kansas. 

The bill for the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton 
Constitution, was passed by the Senate. In the House, an 
amendment, offered by Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, was 
adopted, to the effect that, as it was a disputed point whether 
the Constitution framed at Lecompton was fairly made, or ex¬ 
pressed the will of the people of Kansas, her admission into 
the Union as a State was declared to be upon the fundamental 
condition precedent, that the said constitutional instrument 
should first be submitted to a vote of the people of Kansas, 
and assented to by them, or by a majority of the voters, at an 
election to be held for the purpose of determining the question 
of the ratification or rejection of the instrument. 

The Senate insisted upon its bill; the House adhered to its 
amendment; and a committee of conference was appointed. 
The result of the conference was the report of a bill for the 
admission K)f Kansas, which became a law in June, 1858, and 
substantially secured nearly all that the North had claimed in 
the controversy. 

The bill, as passed, rejected the Land Ordinance contained 
in the Lecompton Constitution, and proposed a substitute. 
Kansas was to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing, 
in all respects, with the original States, but upon the funda¬ 
mental condition piecedent, that the question of admission, 
along with that of the Land substitute, be submitted to a vote 
of the people; that, if a majority of the vote should be 
against the proposition tendered by Congress, it should be 
concluded that Kansas did not desire admission under the Le¬ 
compton Constitution, with the condition attached to it; and 
that, in such event, the people were authorized to form for 
themselves a Constitution and State government, and might 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


25 


elect delegates for that purpose, after a census taken to de¬ 
monstrate the fact, that the population of the Territory equal¬ 
led or exceeded the ratio of representation for a member of the 
House of Representatives. 

Thus ended the six months’ discussion of the Kansas question 
in Congress in 1858. The substitute to the Land Ordinance 
was rejected by the voters of the Territory; and Kansas did 
not come into the Union until nearly three years afterwards— 
just as the Southern States were going out of it. She came in 
under an anti-slavery constitution, and Mr. Buchanan signed 
the bill of admission. 

The discussions of the Kansas question, as summed in the 
preceding pages, had materially weakened the Union. The 
spirit of those discussions, and the result itself of the contro¬ 
versy, fairly indicated that the South could hardly expect, 
under any circumstances, the addition of another Slave State 
to the Union. The Southern mind was awakened ; the senti¬ 
mental reverences of more than half a century were decried; 
and men began to calculate the precise value of a Union 
which, by its mere name and the paraphrases of demagogues, 
had long governed their affections. 

Some of these calculations, as they appeared in the newspa¬ 
per presses of the times, were curious, and soon commenced to 
interest the Southern people. It was demonstrated to them 
that their section had been used to contribute the bulk of the 
revenues of the Government; that the North derived forty to 
fifty millions of annual revenue from the South, through the 
operations of the tariff; and that the aggregate of the trade 
of the South in Northern markets was four hundred millions 
of dollars a year. It was calculated by a Northern writer, 
that the harvest of gain reaped by the North from the Union, 
from unequal taxations and the courses of trade as between 
the two sections, exceeded two hundred millions of dollars per 
year. 

These calculations of the commercial cost of the “ glorious 
Union” to the South, only presented the question in a single 
aspect, however striking that was. There were other aspects 
no less important and no less painful, in which it was to be 
regarded. The swollen and insolent power of Abolitionism 
threatened to carry every thing before it; it had already bro- 


2# 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


ken the vital principle of the Constitution—that of the equal¬ 
ity of its parts; and to injuries already accomplished, it added 
the bitterest threats and the most insufferable insolence. 

While the anti-slavery power threatened never to relax its 
efforts until, in the language of Mr. Seward, a senator from 
New York, the “irrepressible conflict” between slavery and 
freedom was accomplished, and the soil of the Carolinas dedi¬ 
cated to the institutions of New England, it affected the inso¬ 
lent impertinence of regarding the Union as a concession on 
the part of the North, and of taunting the South with the 
disgrace which her association in the Union inflicted upon the 
superior and more virtuous people of the Northern States. 
The excesses of this conceit are ridiculous, seen in the light of 
subsequent events. It was said that the South was an inferior 
part of the country; that she was a spotted and degraded sec¬ 
tion ; that the national fame abroad was compromised by the 
association of the South in the Union ; and that a New Eng¬ 
land traveller in Europe blushed to confess himself an Ameri¬ 
can, because half of the nation of that name were slavehold¬ 
ers. Many of the Abolitionists made a pretence of praying 
that the Union might be dissolved, that they might be cleared, 
by the separation of North and South, of any implication in 
the crime of slavery. Even that portion of the party calling 
themselves “ Republicans” affected that the Union stood in 
the way of the North. Mr. Banks, of Massachusetts, who 
had been elected Speaker of the House in the Thirty-first Con¬ 
gress, had declared that the designs of his party were not to be 
baffled, and was the author of the coarse jeer —“Let the Union 
slide.” The New York Tribune had complained that the 
South “ could not be kicked out of the Union.” Mr. Seward, 
the great Bepublican leader, had spread the evangely of a nat¬ 
ural, essential, and irrepressible hostility between the two sec¬ 
tions ; and the North prepared to act on a suggestion, the only 
practical result of which could be to cleave the Union apart, 
and to inaugurate the horrors of civil war. 

The raid into Virginia of John Brown, a notorious Aboli 
tionist, whose occupations in Kansas had been those of a horse- 
thief and assassin, and his murder of peaceful and unsuspect 
ing citizens at Harper’s Ferry in the month of October, 1859, 
was a practical illustration of the lessons of the Northern Be 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


27 


publicans, and of their inevitable and, in fact, logical conclu¬ 
sion in civil war. Professed conservatives in the North pre¬ 
dicted that this outrage would be productive of real good in 
their section, in opening the eyes of the people to what were 
well characterized as “ Black Republican” doctrines. This 
prediction was not verified by succeeding events. The North¬ 
ern elections of the next month showed no diminution in the 
Black Republican vote. The manifestations of sympathy for 
John Brown, who had expiated his crime on a gallows in Vir¬ 
ginia, were unequivocal in all parts of the North, though com¬ 
paratively few openly justified the outrage. Bells were tolled 
in various towns of New England on the day of his execution, 
with the knowledge of the local authorities, and in some in¬ 
stances, through their co-operation ; and not a few preachers 
from the pulpit alloted him an apotheosis, and consigned his 
example to emulation, as one not only of public virtue, but of 
particular service to God. 

The attachment of the South to the Union was steadily 
weakening in the historical succession of events. The nomi¬ 
nation in December, 1859, to the Speakership of the House of 
Representatives of Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, who had made him¬ 
self especially odious to the South by publicly recommending, 
in connection with sixty-eight other Republican members, a 
fanatical document popularly known as “ Helper's Book”* 


* The tone of this hook was violent in the extreme. We add a few ex¬ 
tracts, which will enable the reader to form a correct opinion of the character 
and object of the work— 

“ Slavery is a great moral, social, civil, and political evil, to be got rid of at 
the earliest practical period.”— {Page 168.) 

«Three-quarters of a century hence, if the South retains slavery, which 
God forbid! she will be to the North what Poland is to Russia, Cuba to Spain, 
and Ireland to England.”—(P. 163.) 

“Our own banner is inscribed—No co-operation with slaveholders in 
politics; ho fellowship with them in religion; no affiliation with them in 
society; no recognition of pro-slavery men, except as ruffians, outlaws,and 
criminals.”—(P 156.) 

“ We believe it is as it ought to be, the desire, the determination, and the 
destiny of the Republican party to give the death-blow to slavery.”—(P. 234.) 

“ In any event, come what will, transpire what may, the institution of 
slavery must be abolished.”—(P. 180.) 

“ We are determined to abolish slavery at all hazards—in defiance of all 
the opposition, of whatever nature, it is possible for the slaveocrats to bring 

3 



28 


THE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAE. 


from the name of the author, and which openly defended and 
sought itself to excite servile insurrections in the South, pro¬ 
duced a marked effect in Congress, and was encountered by 
the Southern members with a determined spirit of opposition. 
The entire Southern delegation gave warning that they would 
regard the election of Mr. Sherman, or of any man with his 
record, as an open declaration of war upon the institutions of 
the South ; as much so, some of the members declared, as if 
the Brown raid were openly approved by a majority of the 
House of Representatives. The Black Republican party de¬ 
fiantly nominated Sherman, and continued to vote for him for 
near two months, giving him within four votes of a majority 
upon every trial of his strength. Although he was finally 
withdrawn, and one of his party, not a subscriber to the 
j Helper Book, was elected, yet the fact that more than three- 
fourths of the entire Northern delegation had adhered to Mr. 
Sherman for nearly two months in a factious and fanatical 
spirit, produced a deep impression on the minds of Southern 
members and of their constituents. The early dissolution of 
the Union had come to be a subject freely canvassed among 
members of Congress. . 

With the unveiling of the depth of the designs of the Black 
Republican party, another danger was becoming manifest to 
the South. It was the demoralization of the Northern Demo¬ 
cratic party on the slavery question. This whole party had 
been an unhealthy product; its very foundation was a princi¬ 
ple of untruth, and false to its own section, it could not be ex¬ 
pected to adhere to friends whom it had made from interest 
and who had fallen into adverse circumstances. It had united 
with the South for political power. In the depression of that 
power, and the rapid growth of the anti-slavery party in the 

against us. Of this they may take due notice, and govern themselves accord¬ 
ingly.”—(P. 149.) 

“ It is our honest conviction that all the pro-slavery slaveholders deserve 
at once to be reduced to a parallel with the basest criminals that lie fettered 
within the cells of our public prisons.”—(P. 158.) 

“ Shall we pat the bloodhounds of slavery ? Shall we fee the curs of 
slavery? Shall we pay the whelps of slavery? No, never.”—(P. 329.) 

“ Our purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal pillars of heaven; we have 
determined to abolish slavery, and, so help us God! abolish it we will.”— 
P. 187.) 





THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


29 


North, it had no hesitation in courting and conciliating the 
ruling element. This disposition was happily accommodated 
by the controversy which had taken place between Mr. Doug¬ 
las and the administration of Mr. Buchanan. The anti-slavery 
sentiment in the North was conciliated by the partisans of the 
Illinois demagogue, in adopting a new principle for the gov¬ 
ernment of the Territories, which was to allow the people to 
determine the question of slavery in their territorial capacity, 
without awaiting their organization as a State, and thus to 
risk the decision of the rights of the South on the verdict of a 
few settlers on the public domain. This pander to the anti¬ 
slavery sentiment of the North was concealed under the dem¬ 
agogical name of “ popular sovereignty,” and was imposed 
upon the minds of not a few of the Southern people by the 
artfulness of its appeals to the name of a principle, which had 
none of the substance of justice or equality. The conceal¬ 
ment, however, was but imperfectly availing. The doctrine 
of Mr. Douglas was early denounced by one of the most vigi¬ 
lant statesmen of the South as “ a short cut to all the ends of 
Black Republicanism and later in time, while the “ Helper 
Book” controversy was agitating the country, and other ques¬ 
tions developing the union of all the anti-slavery elements for 
war upon the South, a senator from Georgia was found bold 
enough to denounce, in his place in Congress, the entire Dem¬ 
ocratic party of the North as unreliable and “rotten” 

The State Bights party of the South had co-operated with 
the Democracy of the North in the Presidential canvass of 
1856, upon the principles of the platform adopted by the Na^ 
tional Democratic Convention, assembled in Cincinnati, in 
June of that year. They expressed a willingness to continue 
this co-operation in the election of 1860, upon the principles 
of the Cincinnati platform; but demanded, as a condition pre¬ 
cedent to this, that the question of the construction of this 
platform should be satisfactorily settled. To this end, the 
State Bights Democratic party in several of the Southern 
States defined the conditions upon which their delegates should 
hold seats in the National Convention, appointed to meet at 
Charleston on the 23d of April, 1860. The Democracy in Al¬ 
abama moved first, On the 11th of January, 1860, they met 
in convention at Montgomery, and adopted a series of resolu 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


30 

tions, from which the following are extracted, as presenting a 
summary declaration of the rights of the South, a recapitula¬ 
tion of the territorial question, and a definition of those issues 
on which the contest of 1860 was to be conducted : 

Resolved , by the Democracy of the State of Alabama in Convention assem' 
bled, That holding all issues and principles upon which they have heretofore 
affiliated and acted with the National Democratic party to be inferior in dig¬ 
nity and importance to the great question of slavery, they content themselves 
with a general reaffirmance of the Cincinnati platform as to such issues, 
and also indorse said platform as to slavery, together with the following 
resolutions: 

********* 

Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States, is a compact between 
sovereign and co-equal States, united upon the basis of perfect equality of 
rights and privileges. 

Resolved, further, That the Territories of the United States are common 
property, in which the States have equal rights, and to which the citizens of 
any State may rightfully emigrate, with their slaves or other property 
recognized as such in any of the States of the Union, or by the Constitution 
of the United States. 

Resolved, further , That the Congress of the United States has no power to 
abolish slavery in the Territories, or to prohibit its introduction into any of 
them. 

Resolved, further, That the Territorial Legislatures, created by the legisla¬ 
tion of Congress, have no power to abolish slavery, or to prohibit the intro¬ 
duction of the same, or to impair by unfriendly legislation the security and 
full enjoyment of the same within the Territories; and such constitutional 
power certainly does not belong to the people of the Territories in any capa¬ 
city, before, in the exercise of a lawful authority, they form a Constitution, 
preparatory to admission as a State into the Union; and their action in the 
exercise of such lawful authority certainly cannot operate or take effect before 
their actual admission as a State into the Union. 

Resolved, further, That the principles enunciated by Chief Justice Taney, 
in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, deny to the Territorial Legislature the 
power to destroy or impair, by any legislation whatever, the right of property 
in slaves, and maintain it to be the duty of the Federal Government, in all of 
its departments, to protect the rights of the owner of such property in the 
Territories; and the principles so declared are hereby asserted to be the rights 
of the South, and the South should maintain them. 

Resolved, further, That we hold all of the foregoing propositions to contain 
“ cardinal principles”—true in themselves—and just and proper and neces¬ 
sary for the safety of all that is dear to us ; and we do hereby instruct our 
delegates to the Charleston Convention to present them for the calm con¬ 
sideration and approval of that body—from whose justice and patriotism we 
anticipate their adoption. 

Resolved, further , That our delegates to the Charleston Convention are 
hereby expressly instructed to insist that said Convention shall adopt a plat- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


31 


form of principles, recognizing distinctly the rights of the South as asserted 
in the foregoing resolutions ; and if the said National Convention shall refuse 
to adopt, in substance, the propositions embraced in the preceding resolutions, 
prior to nominating candidates, our delegates to said Convention are hereby 
positively instructed to withdraw therefrom. 


Under tliese resolutions the delegates from Alabama re¬ 
ceived their appointment to the Charleston Convention. The 
delegates from some of the other Cotton States were appointed 
under instructions equally binding. Anxious as were the 
Southern delegates to continue their connection with the Con¬ 
vention, and thus to maintain the nationality of the Demo¬ 
cratic party, they agreed to accept, as the substance of the 
Alabama platform, either of the two following reports which 
had been submitted to the Charleston Convention by the ma¬ 
jority of the Committee on Resolutions—this majority not 
only representing that of the States of the Union, but the only 
States at all likely to be carried by the Democratic party in 
the Presidential election: 


I. 

Resolved , Tliat the platform at Cincinnati be reaffirmed witb the following 
resolutions: 

Resolved, That the Democracy of the United States hold these cardinal 
principles on the subject of slavery in the Territories: First, that Congress 
has no power to abolish slavery in the Territories. Second, that the Territo¬ 
rial Legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any Territory, nor to 
prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery 
therefrom, nor any power to destroy and impair the right of property in 
slaves by any legislation whatever. 

********* 

IL 

Resolved, That the platform adopted by the Democratic party at Cincinnati 
be affirmed, with the following explanatory resolutions : 

First. That the government of a Territory, organized by an act of Congress, 
is provisional and temporary; and, during its existence, all citizens of the 
United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Terri¬ 
tory, without their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed or im¬ 
paired by congressional or territorial legislation. 

Second. That it is the duty of the Federal Government, in all its depart¬ 
ments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and property in the 
Territories and wherever else its constitutional authority extends. 

Third. That when the settlers in a Territory having an adequate popula¬ 
tion form a State Constitution, the right of sovereignty commences, and, 


32 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


being consummated by admission into the Union, they stand on an equal 
footing with the people of other States; and the State thus organized, ought 
to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its Constitution prohibits or 
recognizes the institution of slavery. 

The Convention refused to accept either of the foregoing 
resolutions, and adopted, by a vote of 165 to 138, the follow¬ 
ing as its platform on the slavery question : 

1. Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in Convention assem 
bled, hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted 
and declared as a platform of principles by the Democratic Convention at 
Cincinnati, in the year 1856, believing that Democratic principles are un¬ 
changeable in their nature, when applied to the same subject-matters; and 
we recommend as the only further resolutions the following: 

Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the 
nature and extent of the powers of a Territorial Legislature, and as to the 
powers and duties of Congress under the Constitution of the United States, 
over the institution of slavery within the Territories : 

2. Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the decisions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States on the questions of constitutional law. 

The substitution of these resolutions for those which were 
satisfactory to the South, occasioned the disruption of the 
Convention, after a session of more than three weeks, and its 
adjournment to Baltimore, on the 18th of June. The Cotton 
States, all, withdrew from the Convention; but the Border 
Slave States remained in it, with the hope of effecting some 
nltimate settlement of the difficulty. The breach, however, 
widened. The reassembling of the Convention at Baltimore 
resulted in a final and embittered separation of the opposing 
delegations. The majority exhibited a more uncompromising 
spirit than ever; and Virginia and all the Border Slave States, 
with the exception of Missouri, withdrew from the Convention, 
and united with the representatives of the Cotton States, then 
assembled in Baltimore, in the nomination of candidates repre¬ 
senting the views of the South. Their nominees were John C. 
Breckinridge of Kentucky for President, and Joseph Lane of 
Oregon for Vice-President. 

The old Convention, or what remained of it, nominated Ste¬ 
phen A. Douglas of Illinois for President, and Benjamin 
Fitzpatrick of Alabama for Vice-President. The latter declin- 





THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


33 


ing, Ilerschel Y. Johnson of Georgia was substituted on the 
ticket. 

The Southern Democracy and the Southern people of all 
parties, with hut few exceptions, sustained the platform de¬ 
manded by the Southern delegates in the Convention, and jus¬ 
tified the course they had pursued. They recognized in the 
platform a legimate and fair assertion of Southern rights. 
In view, however, of the conservative professions and glozed 
speeches of a portion of the Northern Democracy, a respecta¬ 
ble number of Southern Democrats were induced to support 
their ticket. Mr. Douglas proclaimed his views to be in favor 
of non-intervention ; he avowed his continued and unalterable 
opposition to Black Republicanism; his principles were pro¬ 
fessed to be “held subject to the decisions of the Supreme 
Court”—the distinction between judicial questions and politi¬ 
cal questions being purposely clouded; and his friends, with 
an ingenious sophistry that had imposed upon the South for 
thirty years with success, insisted that the support of Stephen 
A. Douglas was a support of the party in the North which had 
stood by the South amid persecution and defamation. In con¬ 
sequence of these and other protestations, tickets were got up 
for Mr. Douglas in most of the Southern States. The great 
majority, however, of the Democracy of the slave-holding 
States, except Missouri, supported Breckinridge. 

A Convention of what is called the “ Constitutional Union” 
party met in Baltimore on the 9th of May, 1860, and nomi¬ 
nated for President and Yice-President, John Bell of Tennes¬ 
see and Edward Everett of Massachusetts. Their platform 
consisted of a vague and undefined enumeration of their polit¬ 
ical principles; as, “The Constitution of the Country, the 
Union of the States, and Enforcement of the Laws.” 

The National Convention of the Black Republican party 
was held at Chicago, in the month of June. It adopted a plat¬ 
form declaring freedom to be the “ normal condition” of the 
Territories; but ingeniously complicating its position on the 
slavery question by a number of vague but plausible articles, 
such as the maintenance of the principles of the Constitution, 
and especial attachment to the Union of the States. 

The Presidential ticket nominated by the Convention was 
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President, and Hannibal 

3 


34 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Hamlin of Maine for Yice-President. Governed by the nar¬ 
row considerations of party expediency, the Convention had 
adopted as their candidate for President a man of scanty po¬ 
litical record—a Western lawyer, with the characteristics of 
that profession—acuteness, slang, and a large stock of jokes— 
and who had peculiar claims to vulgar and demagogical popu¬ 
larity, in the circumstances that he was once a captain of 
volunteers in one of the Indian wars, and, at some anterior pe¬ 
riod of his life, had been employed, as report differently said, 
in splitting rails, or in rowing a flat-boat. 

The great majority of the Southern Democracy supported 
the Breckinridge ticket; it was the leading ticket in all the 
Slave States, except Missouri; but in the North but a small 
and feeble minority of the Democratic party gave it their sup¬ 
port. In several States, the friends of Douglas, of Breckin¬ 
ridge, and of Bell coalesced, to a certain extent, with a view to 
the defeat of Lincoln, but without success, except in New Jer¬ 
sey, where they partially succeeded. 

The result of the contest was, that Abraham Lincoln re¬ 
ceived the entire electoral vote of every free State, except New 
Jersey, and was, of course, elected President of the United 
States, according to the forms of the Constitution. 

The entire popular vote for Lincoln was 1,858,200; that 
for Douglas, giving him his share of the fusion vote, 1,276,780; 
that for Breckinridge, giving him his share of the fusion vote, 
812,500; and that for Bell, including his proportion of the fu¬ 
sion vote, 735,504. The whole vote against Lincoln was thus 
2,824,874, showing a clear aggregate majority against him of 
nearly a million of votes. 

During the canvass, the North had been distinctly warned 
by the conservative parties of the country, that the election of 
Lincoln by a strictly sectional vote would be taken as a decla¬ 
ration of war against the South. This position was assumed 
on the part of the South, not so much on account of the 
declaration of the anti-slavery principles in the Chicago plat¬ 
form, as from the notorious animus of the party supporting 
Lincoln. The Chicago Convention had attempted to conceal 
the worst designs of Abolitionism under professions of advan¬ 
cing the cause of freedom in strict accordance with the Consti¬ 
tution and the laws. The South, however, could not be igno* 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


35 


rant of the fact, or wanting in appreciation of it, that Lincoln 
had been supported by the sympathizers of John Brown, the 
indorsers of the “ Helper Book,” the founders of the Kansas 
Emigrant Aid Societies, and their desperate abetters and 
agents, “ Jim” Lane and others, and by the opponents of the 
Fugitive Slave law. It was known, in a word, that Lincoln 
owed his election to the worst enemies of the South, and that 
he would naturally and necessarily select his counsellors from 
among them, and consult their views in his administration of 
the government. 

Threats of resistance were proclaimed in the South. It is 
true that a few sanguine persons in that section, indulging nar¬ 
row and temporizing views of the crisis, derived no little 
comfort and confidence from the large preponderance of the 
popular vote in the Presidential contest in favor of the con¬ 
servative candidates; and viewed it as an augury of the speedy 
overthrow of the first sectional administration. But those 
whose observations were larger and comprehended the progress 
of events, took quite a different view of the matter. They 
could find no consolation or encouragement from the face of 
the record. The anti-slavery party had organized in 1840, 
with about seven thousand voters; and in 1860 had succeeded 
in electing the President of the United States. The conserva¬ 
tive party in the North had been thoroughly corrupted. They 
were beaten in every Northern State in 1860, with a single 
exception, by the avowed enemies of the South, who, but a few 
years ago had been powerless in their midst. The leaders of 
the Northern Democratic party had in 1856 and in 1860, 
openly taken the position that freedom would be more certainly 
secured in the Territories by the rule of non-intervention than 
by any other policy or expedient. This interpretation of their 
policy alone saved the Democratic party from entire annihila¬ 
tion. The overwhelming pressure of the anti-slavery senti¬ 
ment had prevented their acceding to the Southern platform in 
the Presidential canvass. Nothing in the present or in the fu¬ 
ture could be looked for from the so-called conservatives of the 
North; and the South prepared to go out of a Union, which 
no longer afforded any guaranty for her rights or any perma¬ 
nent sense of security, and which had brought her under the 
domination of a growing fanaticism in the North, the senti- 


36 


THE FIliST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


ments of which, if carried into legislation, would destroy her 
institutions, confiscate the property of her people, and even 
involve their lives. 

The State of South Carolina acted promptly and vigorous¬ 
ly, with no delay for argument, and but little for prepara¬ 
tion. Considering the argument as fully exhausted, she de¬ 
termined, by the exercise of her rights as a sovereign State, to 
separate herself from the Union. Her Legislature called a 
Convention immediately after the result of the Presidential 
election had been ascertained. The Convention met a few 
weeks thereafter, and on the 20th day of December, 1860, for¬ 
mally dissolved the connection of South Carolina with the 
Union, by an ordinance of Secession, which was passed by a 
unanimous vote. 

On the same day Major Anderson, who was in command of 
the Federal forces in Charleston harbor, evacuated Fort 
Moultrie, spiking the guns and burning the gun-carriages, and 
occupied Fort Sumter, with a view of strengthening his po¬ 
sition. On the 30th of December, John B. Floyd, Secretary of 
War, resigned his office, because President Buchanan refused 
to order Major Anderson back to Fort Moultrie—Mr. Floyd 
alleging that he and the President had pledged the authorities 
of South Carolina that the existing military status of the United 
States in that State should not be changed during the expiring 
term of the Democratic administration. 

The withdrawal of South Carolina from the Union produced 
some sensation in the North, but the dominant party treated it 
lightly. Many of these jeered at it; their leaders derided the 
“right of secession;” and their newspapers prophesied that 
the “rebellion” in South Carolina would be reduced to the 
most ignominious extremity the moment the “ paternal govern¬ 
ment” of the United States should resolve to have recourse 
from peaceful persuasions to the chastisement of “a spoilt 
child.” The events, however, which rapidly succeeded the 
withdrawal of South Carolina, produced a deep impression 
upon all reflecting minds, and startled, to some extent, the 
masses of the North, who would have been much more alarmed 
but for their vain and long-continued assurance that the South 
had no means or resources for making a serious resistance to 
the Federal authority; and that a rebellion which could at any 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


37 


time be crushed on short notice, might be pleasantly humored 
or wisely tolerated to any extent short of the actual com¬ 
mencement of hostilities. 

On the 9th day of January, 1861, the State of Mississippi 
seceded from the Union. Alabama and Florida followed on 
the 11th day of the same month; Georgia on the 20th; 
Louisiana on the 26th; and Texas on the 1st of February. Thus, 
in less than three months after the announcement of Lincoln’s 
election, all the Cotton States, with the exception of Alabama, 
had seceded from the Union, and had, besides, secured every 
Federal fort within their limits, except the forts in Charles¬ 
ton harbor, and Fort Pickens, below Pensacola, which were 
retained by United States troops. 

The United States Congress had, at the beginning of its ses¬ 
sion in December, 1860, appointed committees in both houses 
to consider the state of the Union. Neither committee was 
able to agree upon any mode of settlement of the pending issue 
between the North and the South. The Kepublican members 
in both committees rejected propositions acknowledging the 
right of property in slaves, or recommending the division of 
the territories between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding 
States by a geographical line. In the Senate, the propositions, 
commonly known as Mr. Crittenden’s, were voted against by 
every Republican senator; and the House, on a vote of yeas 
and nays, refused to consider certain propositions, moved by 
Mr. Etheridge, which were even less favorable to the South 
than Mr. Crittenden’s. 

A resolution, giving a pledge to sustain the President in the 
use of force against seceding States, was adopted in the House 
of Representatives by a large majority; and, in the Senate, 
every Kepublican voted to substitute for Mr. Crittenden’s 
propositions, resolutions offered by Mr. Clarke, of New Hamp 
shire, declaring that no new concessions, guaranties, or amend¬ 
ments to the Constitution were necessary; that the demands of 
the South were unreasonable, and that the remedy for the 
present dangers was simply to enforce the laws—in other 
words —coercion and war. 

On the 19th day of January, the Legislature of the State 
of Virginia had passed resolutions having in view a peaceful 
settlement of the questions which threatened the Union, and 


38 


TIIE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


suggesting that a National Peace Conference should be held in 
Washington on the 4th of February. This suggestion met with 
a favorable response from the Border Slave States and from 
professed conservatives in the North. The Conference met on 
the day designated, and Ex-President Tyler, of Virginia, was 
called to preside over its deliberations. It remained in session 
several days, and adjourned without agreeing upon any satis¬ 
factory plan of adjustment. 

Most of the delegates from the Border Slave States indicated 
a willingness to accept the few and feeble guaranties contained 
in the resolutions offered, a short time before, in the Senate by 
Mr. Crittenden. These guaranties, paltry and ineffectual as 
they were, would not be conceded by the representatives of 
the Northern States. The Peace Conference finally adopted 
what was called the Franklin Substitute in lieu of the propo¬ 
sitions offered by Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky—a settlement less 
favorable to the South than that proposed by Mr. Crittenden. 
It is useless to recount the details of these measures. Neither 
the Crittenden propositions, the Franklin Substitute, nor any 
plan that pretended to look for the guaranty of Southern 
rights, received a respectful notice from the Eepublican ma¬ 
jority in Congress. 

Shortly after its assemblage in January, the Virginia Legis¬ 
lature had called a Convention of the people to decide upon 
the course proper to be pursued by the State, with reference 
to her present relations to the Union and the future exigencies 
of her situation. The election was held on the 4th of February, 
and resulted in the choice of a majority of members opposed 
to unconditional secession. Subsequently, Tennessee and North 
Carolina decided against calling a Convention—the former by 
a large, the latter by a very small majority. These events 
greatly encouraged the enemies of the South, but without 
cause, as they really indicated nothing more than the purpose 
of the Border Slave States to await the results of the peace 
propositions, to which they had committed themselves. 

In the mean time, the seceding States were erecting the 
structure of a government on the foundation of a new Con¬ 
federation of States. A convention of delegates from the six 
seceding States assembled in Congress at Montgomery, Ala¬ 
bama, on the 4th of February, 1861, for the purpose of organ- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


39 


izing a provisional government. This body adopted a Consti¬ 
tution for the Confederate States on the 8th of February. On 
the 9th of February, Congress proceeded to the election of a 
President and Vice-President, and unanimously agreed upon 
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, for President, and Alexander 
H. Stephens, of Georgia, for Vice-President. Mr. Davis was 
inaugurated Provisional President on the 18th of February, 
and delivered an address, explaining the revolution as a change 
of the constituent parts, but not the system, of the government, 
and referring to the not unreasonable expectation that, with a 
Constitution differing only from that of their fathers, in so far 
as it was explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from 
sectional conflicts, the States from which they had recently 
parted might seek to unite their fortunes to those of the new 
Confederacy. 

President Buchanan had, in his message to Congress, de¬ 
nounced Secession as revolutionary, but had hesitated at the 
logical conclusion of the right of “ coercion,” on the part of 
the Federal Government, as not warranted by the text of the 
Constitution. Timid, secretive, cold, and with no other policy 
than that of selfish expediency, the remnant of his administra¬ 
tion was marked by embarrassment, double-dealing, and weak 
and contemptible querulousness. He had not hesitated, under 
the pressure of Northern clamor, to refuse to order Major 
Anderson back to Fort Moultrie, thus violating the pledge 
that he had given to the South Carolina authorities, that the 
military status of the United States in Charleston harbor 
should not be disturbed during his administration. He added 
to the infamy of this perfidy by a covert attempt to reinforce 
Fort Sumter, under the specious plea of provisioning a cc starv¬ 
ing garrison;” and when the Federal steamship, the Star of 
the West, which was sent on this mission, was, on the 9th of 
January, driven off Charleston harbor by the South Carolina 
batteries on Morris Island, he had the hardihood to affect 
surprise and indignation at the reception given the Federal 
reinforcements, and to insist that the expedition had been 
ordered with the concurrence of his Cabinet, including Mr. 
Thompson, of Mississippi, then Secretary of the Interior, who 
repelled the slander, denounced the movement as underhanded, 
and as a breach not only of good faith towards South Carolina, 


40 


THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. 


but of personal confidence between the President and bis ad¬ 
visers, and left the Cabinet in disgust. 

On the incoming of the administration of Abraham Lincoln, 
on the 4th of March, the rival government of the South had 
perfected its organization; the separation had been widened 
and envenomed by the ambidexterity and perfidy of President 
Buchanan; the Southern people, however, still hoped for a 
peaceful accomplishment of their independence, and deplored 
war between the two sections, as “ a policy detrimental to the 
civilized world.” The revolution in the mean time had rapidly 
gathered, not only in moral power, but in the means of war 
and the muniments of defence. Fort Moultrie and Castle 
Pinckney had been captured by the South Carolina troops; 
Fort Pulaski, the defence of the Savannah, had been taken ; 
the arsenal at Mount Yernon, Alabama, with 20,000 stand of 
arms, had been seized by the Alabama troops; Fort Morgan, 
in Mobile Bay, had been taken ; Forts Jackson, St. Philip, 
and Pike, near New Orleans, had been captured by the Louis¬ 
iana troops; the Pensacola Navy-Yard and Forts Barrancas 
and McKae had been taken, and the siege of Fort Pickens 
commenced; the Baton Bouge Arsenal had been surrendered 
to the Louisiana troops; the New Orleans Mint and Custom- 
House had been taken; the Little Pock Arsenal had been 
seized by the Arkansas troops; and, on the 16th of February, 
General Twiggs had transferred the public property in Texas 
to the State authorities. All of these events had been accom¬ 
plished without bloodshed. Abolitionism and Fanaticism had 
not yet lapped blood. But reflecting men saw that the peace 
was deceitful and temporizing; that the temper of the North 
was impatient and dark; and that, if all history was not a lie, 
the first incident of bloodshed would be the prelude to a war 
of monstrous proportions. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF TIIE WAR. 


41 


CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Lincoln’s Journey to Washington.—Ceremonies of the Inauguration.—The In¬ 
augural Speech ot President Lincoln.—The Spirit of the New Administration.—Its Fi¬ 
nancial Condition.—Embassy from the Southern Confederacy.—Perfidious Treatment 
of the Southern Commissioners.—Preparations for War.—The Military Bills of the 
Confederate Congress.—General Beauregard.—Fortifications of Charleston Harbor.— 
Naval I reparations of the Federal Government.—Attempted Reinforcement of Fort 
Sumter. Perfidy of the Federal Government.—Excitement in Charleston.—Reduction 
°f Fort Sumter by the Confederate Forces.—How the News was received in Wash¬ 
ington.—Lincoln’s Calculation.—His Proclamation of War. —The “Reaction” in the 
North.—Displays of Rancor towards the South.—Northern Democrats.—Replies of 
Southern Governors to Lincoln’s Requisition for Troops.—Spirit of the South.—Seces¬ 
sion of Virginia.—Maryland.—The Baltimore Riot.—Patriotic Example of Missouri.— 
Lincoln’s Proclamation blockading the Southern Ports.—General Lee.—The Federals 
evacuate Harper’s Ferry.—Burning of the Navy Yard at Norfolk.—The Second Seces¬ 
sionary Movement.—Spirit of Patriotic Devotion in the South.—Supply of Arms in 
the South.—The Federal Government and the State of Maryland.—The Prospect. 

The circumstances of the advent of Mr. Lincoln to Wash¬ 
ington were not calculated to inspire confidence in his courage 
or wisdom, or in the results of his administration. His party 
had busily prophesied, and sought to innoculate the North with 
the conviction, that his assumption of the Presidential office 
would be the signal of the restoration of peace; that by some 
mysterious ingenuity he would resolve the existing political 
complication, restore the Union, and inaugurate a season of 
unexampled peace, harmony, and prosperity. These weak and 
fulsome prophecies had a certain effect. In the midst of anx¬ 
iety and embarrassment, in which no relief had yet been 
suggested, the inauguration of a new administration of the 
government was looked to by many persons in the North, out¬ 
side the Pepublican party, with a vague sense of hope, which 
was animated by reports, quite as uncertain, of the vigor, 
decision, and individuality of the new President. For months 
since the announcement of his election, Mr. Lincoln’s lips had 
been closed. He had been studiously silent; expectations were 
raised by what was thought to be an indication of a mysteri¬ 
ous wisdom; and the North impatiently waited for the hour 
when the oracle’s lips were to be opened. 

These vague expectations were almost ludicrously disap¬ 
pointed. On leaving his home, in Springfield, Illinois, for 


42 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Washington, Mr. Lincoln had at last opened his lips. In the 
speeches with which he entertained the crowd that at different 
points of the railroad watched his progress to the capital, he 
amused the whole country, even in the midst of a great public 
anxiety, with his ignorance, his vulgarity, his flippant conceit, 
and his Western phraseology. The North discovered that the 
new President, instead of having nursed a masterly wisdom in 
the retirement of his home at Springfield, and approaching 
the capital with dignity, had nothing better to offer to an 
agonized country than the ignorant conceits of a low Western 
politician, and the flimsy jests of a harlequin. His railroad 
speeches were characterized by a Southern paper as illustrating 
“the delightful combination of a Western county lawyer with 
a Yankee bar-keeper.” In his harangues to the crowds which 
intercepted him in his journey, at a time when the country was 
in revolutionary chaos, when commerce and trade were pros¬ 
trated, and when starving women and idle men were among the 
very audiences that listened to him, he declared to them in his 
peculiar phraseology that “nobody was hurt” that “all would 
C 07 rte out right” and that there was “nothing going wrong” 
Nor was the rhetoric of the new President his only entertain¬ 
ment of the crowds that assembled to honor the progress of his 
journey to Washington. He amused them by the spectacle 
of kissing, on a public platform, a lady-admirer, who had sug¬ 
gested to him the cultivation of his whiskers; he measured 
heights with every tall man he encountered in one of his public 
receptions, and declared that he was not to be “ overtopped 
and he made public exhibitions of his wife—“ the little woman,” 
he called her—whose chubby figure, motherly face, and fond¬ 
ness for finery and colors recommended her to a very limited 
and very vulgar portion of the society of her sex. 

These jests and indecencies of the demagogue who was to 
take control of what remained of the Government of the United 
States, belong to history. Whatever their disgrace, it was 
surpassed, however, by another display of character on the part 
of the coming statesman. While at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 
and intending to proceed from there to Baltimore, Mr. Lincoln 
was alarmed by a report, which was either silly or jocose, that 
a band of assassins were awaiting him in the latter city. 
Frightened beyond all considerations of dignity and decency, 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


43 


the new President of the United States left Harrisburg at 
night, on a different route than that through Baltimore; and in 
a motley disguise, composed of a Scotch cap and military cloak, 
stole to the capital of his government. The distinguished 
fugitive had left his wife and family to pursue the route on 
which it was threatened that the cars were to be thrown down 
a precipice by Secessionists, or, if that expedient failed, the 
work of assassination was to be accomplished in the streets of 
Baltimore. The city of Washington was taken by surprise by 
the irregular flight of the President to its shelter and protec¬ 
tion. The representatives of his own party there received him 
with evident signs of disgust at the cowardice which had hur¬ 
ried his arrival in Washington; but as an example of the early 
prostitution of the press of that parasitical city to the incom¬ 
ing administration that was to feed its venal lusts, the escapade 
of Mr. Lincoln was, with a shamelessness almost incredible, 
exploited as an ingenious and brilliant feat, and entitled, in 
the newspaper extras that announced his arrival, as “ another 
Fort Moultrie coup de main ”—referring to the fraud by which 
the government had stolen a march by midnight to the supposed 
impregnable defences of Port Sumter. 

But Mr. Lincoln’s fears for his personal safety evidently did 
not subside with his attainment of the refuges of Washington. 
A story was published seriously in a Hew York paper, that at 
the moment of his inauguration he was to be shot on the Cap¬ 
itol steps, by an air-gun, in the hands of a Secessionist selected 
for this desperate and romantic task of assassination. The 
President, with nerves already shattered by his flight from 
Harrisburg, was easily put in a new condition of alarm. An 
armed guard was posted around Willard’s hotel, where he hadi 
taken temporary quarters. Preparations were busily made to 
organize a military protection for the ceremony of the inaugu¬ 
ration. The city of Washington had already been invested 
with large military forces, under the immediate command of 
General Scott, whose vanity and weak love of public sensations 
had easily induced him to pretend alarm, and to make a mili¬ 
tary display, more on his own account than for the ridiculous 
and absurd object of Mr. Lincoln’s personal security. For 
weeks the usually quiet city had been filled w T ith Federal 
bayonets; the bugle’s reveille, the roll of drums, and the tramp 

4 




44 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


of armed guards startled, in every direction, the civilian of 
Washington, who had been accustomed to nothing more war¬ 
like than j)arades at the Navy Yard and rows in Congress 
companies of flying artillery daily paraded the streets and 
thundered over its pavements; and no form of ostentation was 
omitted by the senile and conceited general in command, to 
give the Federal metropolis the appearance of a conquered 
city. 

The hour of the inauguration—the morning of the fourth of 
March—at length arrived. Mr. Lincoln was dressed in a suit 
of black for the occasion, and, at the instance of his friends, 
had submitted to the offices of a hair-dresser. He entered the 
barouche that was to convey him to the Capitol, with a nervous 
agitation and an awkwardness, that were plainly evident to the 
crowd. His person attracted the curiosity of the mob. Of 
unusual height, the effect of his figure was almost ludicrous, 
from a swinging gait and the stoop of his shoulders; a cadav¬ 
erous face, whose expression was that of a sort of funereal hu¬ 
mor ; long, swinging arms, with the general hirsute appearance 
of the Western countryman, made up the principal features of 
the new President. 

The inauguration ceremony was attended by a most extraor¬ 
dinary military display, under the immediate direction of Gen¬ 
eral Scott; who, to give it an appearance of propriety, and to 
increase its importance, affected the most uneasy alarms. Pre¬ 
vious to inauguration day, the vaults of the Capitol were ex¬ 
plored for evidences of a gunpowder plot to hurry Mr. Lincoln 
and his satellites into eternity. In the procession along Penn¬ 
sylvania Avenue, the President was hid from public view in a 
hollow square of cavalry, three or four deep. The tops of the 
houses along the route were occupied by soldiery watching for 
signs of tumult or assassination. Artillery and infantry com¬ 
panies were posted in different parts of the city; officers were 
continually passing to and fro; and as the procession ap¬ 
proached the Capitol, Gen. Scott, who was in constant commu¬ 
nication with all quarters of the city, was heard to exclaim, in 
a tone of relief, “every thing is going on peaceably; thank 
God Almighty for it.” The expression of relief was simply 
ridiculous. The ceremony was disturbed by but a single inci¬ 
dent: as the procession neared the portico of the Capitol, a 




THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


45 


drunken man, who had climbed up one of the trees on the 
avenue, amused himself by striking with a staff the boughs of 
the tree and shouting to the crowd. The thought flashed upon 
the minds of the special police, that he might be the identical 
assassin with the air-gun; he was instantly seized by a dozen 
of them, and hurried from the scene of the ceremony with a 
rapidity and decision that for a moment alarmed, and then 
amused, the crowd. Mr. Lincoln delivered his inaugural from 
the East portico of the Capitol, to an audience huddled within 
the lines of the District militia, and with a row of bayonets 
glittering at his feet. 

The inaugural was intended to be ambiguous; it proposed to 
cozen the South by a cheap sentimentalism, and, at the same 
time, to gratify the party that had elevated Mr. Lincoln, by a 
sufficient expression of the designs of the new administration. 
These designs were sufficiently apparent. Mr. Lincoln pro¬ 
tested that he should take care that the laws of the United 
States were faithfully executed in all the States; he declared 
that in doing this, there was no necessity for bloodshed or vio¬ 
lence, “unless it was forced upon the national authority.” He 
promised that the power confided to him would be used to 
hold, occupy, and possess the forts and places belonging to the 
government,, “but,” continued the ambidexterous speaker, 
u beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will 
be no invasion, no using of force against or among any people 
anywhere.” 

In the South, the inaugural was generally taken as a premo¬ 
nition of war. There were other manifestations of the spirit 
of the new administration. Violent Abolitionists and men 
whose hatred of the South was notorious and unrelenting, were 
placed in every department of the public service. William H. 
Seward was made Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury; and Montgomery Blair, Postmaster- 
general. Anson Burlingame was sent as representative to 
Austria; Cassius M. Clay, to Bussia; Carl Shurz, to Spain; 
James E. Harvey, to Portugal; Charles F. Adams, to Eng¬ 
land ; and Joshua P. Giddings, to Canada. In the Senate, 
which was convened in an extra session to confirm executive 
appointments and to transact other public business, Charles 
Sumner was appointed Chairman of Foreign Kelations; Wil- 


46 


THE FIE ST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


liam P. Fessenden, of Finance; and Henry Wilson, of Mili¬ 
tary Affairs. A portion of the time of this extra session was 
consumed in discussing the policy of the administration. Mr. 
Douglas, w T ho had represented the Northern Democracy in the 
Presidential contest, and still claimed to represent it, and who 
had already courted the new administration of his rival—had 
held Mr. Lincoln’s hat at the inauguration ceremony, and en¬ 
acted the part of Mrs. Lincoln’s cavalier at the inauguration 
ball—essayed to give to the President’s inaugural a peace in¬ 
terpretation, and to soften what had been foreshadowed of his 
policy. The efforts of the demagogue were ill-timed and 
paltry. Senators from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Ken¬ 
tucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and North Carolina, who still con¬ 
tinued in the councils of the government, remained long enough 
to witness the subversion of all the principles that had before 
contributed to the prosperity and stability of the American 
Government; to learn, as far as possible, the course the gov¬ 
ernment would pursue towards the Confederate States; and to 
return home to prepare their people for the policy of discord, 
conflict, and civil w’ar which had been inaugurated. 

The financial condition of the government at the time of Mr. 
Lincoln’s accession was by no means desperate. There was a 
balance in the Treasury of six millions, applicable to current 
expenses; the receipts from customs were estimated at eighty 
thousand dollars per day; and it was thought that a loan 
would not be called for for some time, should there be a happy 
continuation of peace. 

The Confederate States government at Montgomery had 
shown nothing of a desperate or tumultuous spirit; it had not 
watched events with recklessness as to their conclusion; it was 
anxious for peace; and it gave a rare evidence of the virtue 
and conservatism of a new government, which was historically 
the fruit of a revolution, by the most sedulous efforts to avoid 
all temptations to violence, and to resist the consequence of 
war. Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, it had de¬ 
puted an embassy of commissioners to Washington, authorized 
to negotiate for the removal of the Federal garrisons from 
Forts Pickens and Sumter, and to provide for the settlement 
of all claims of public property arising out of the separation of 
the States from the Union. Two of the commissioners, Martin 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


47 


Crawford, of Georgia, and John Forsythe, of Alabama, at¬ 
tended in Washington, and addressed a communication to Mr. 
Seward, which explained the functions of the embassy and its 
purposes. 

Mr. Seward declined for the present to return an official 
answer to the commissioners, or to recognize in an official light 
their humane and amicable mission. His government had re¬ 
solved on a policy of perfidy. The commissioners were amused 
from week to week with verbal assurances that the government 
was disposed to recognize them; that to treat with them at the 
particular juncture might seriously embarrass the administra¬ 
tion of Mr. Lincoln; that they should be patient and confident; 
and that in the mean time the military status of the United 
States in the South would not be disturbed. Judge Campbell, 
of the Supreme Court, had consented to be the intermediary 
of these verbal conferences. When the sequel of the perfidy 
of the administration was demonstrated, he wrote two notes to 
Mr. Seward, distinctly charging him with overreaching and 
equivocation, to which Mr. Seward never attempted a defence 
or a reply. 

The dalliance with the commissioners was not the only de¬ 
ceitful indication of peace. It was given out and confidently 
reported in the newspapers, that Fort Sumter was to be evacu¬ 
ated by the Federal forces. The delusion was continued for 
weeks. The Black Republican party, of course, resented this 
reported policy of the government; but a number of their 
newspapers endeavored to compose the resentment by the 
arguments that the evacuation would be ordered solely on the 
ground of military necessity, as it would be impossible to rein¬ 
force the garrison without a very extensive demonstration of 
force, which the government was not then prepared to make; 
that the purposes of the administration had not relaxed, and 
that the evacuation of Sumter was, as one of the organs of the 
administration expressed it, but “ the crouch of the tiger be¬ 
fore he leaped.” 

It was true that the condition of the garrison of Fort Sumter 
had been a subject of Cabinet consultation; but it was after¬ 
wards discovered that all that had been decided by the advisers 
of the President, among whom General Scott had been admit¬ 
ted, was that military reinforcement of the fort was, under the 


48 


THE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAE. 


circumstances, impracticable. There never was an intention to 
evacuate it. The embarrassment of the government was, to 
avoid the difficulty of military reinforcements by some artifice 
that would equally well answer its purposes. That artifice 
continued for a considerable time to be the subject of secret 
and sedulous consultation. 

While a portion of the public were entertained in watching 
the surface of events, and were imposed upon by deceitful 
signs of peace, discerning men saw the inevitable consequence 
in the significant preparations made on both sides for war. 
These preparations had gone on unremittingly since the inau¬ 
guration of the Lincoln government. The troops of the United 
States were called from the frontiers to the military centres; 
the Mediterranean squadron and other naval forces were or¬ 
dered home; and the city of Washington itself was converted 
into a school where there were daily and ostentatious instruc¬ 
tions of the soldier. On the other hand, the government at 
Montgomery was not idle. Three military bills had been passed 
by the Confederate Congress. The first authorized the raising 
of one hundred thousand volunteers when deemed necessary by 
the President; the second provided for the Provisional Army 
of the Confederate States, which was to be formed from the 
regular and volunteer forces of the different States; and the 
third provided for the organization of a Eegular Army, which 
was to be a permanent establishment. But among the strong¬ 
est indications of the probability of war, in the estimation of 
men calculated to judge of the matter, and among the most 
striking proofs, too, of devotion to the cause of the South, was 
the number of resignations from the Federal army and navy 
on the part of officers of Southern birth or association, and 
their prompt identification with the Confederate service. These 
resignations had commenced during the close of Mr. Buchan¬ 
an’s administration. On the accession of Mr. Lincoln, Adjutant- 
general Cooper had immediately resigned; and the distinguish¬ 
ed example was followed by an array of names, which had 
been not a little illustrious in the annals of the Federal service. 

While the South was entreating peace, and pursuing its 
accomplishment by an amicable mission to Washington, a 
strong outside pressure was being exerted upon the adminis¬ 
tration of Mr. Lincoln to hurry it to the conclusion of war. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


49 


He had been visited by a number of governors of the North¬ 
ern States. They offered him money and men; but it was 
undei stood that nothing would be done in the way of calling 
out the State militia and opening special credits, until the 
Southern revolutionists should be actually in aggression to the 
authority of the Federal government. Another appeal was 
still more effectively urged. It was the argument of the par¬ 
tisan. The report of the intended evacuation of Fort Sumter, 
and the apparent vacillation of the administration, were pro¬ 
ducing disaffection in the Black Republican party. Tiiis party 
had shown a considerable loss of strength in the municipal 
elections in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other parts of the West; 
they had lost two congressmen in Connecticut and two in 
Rhode Island. The low tariff, too, of the Southern Confederacy, 
brought into competition with the high protective tariff which 
the Black Republican majority in Congress had adopted, and 
which was popularly known as ‘‘the Morrill Tariff,” was 
threatening serious disaster to the interests of New England 
and Pennsylvania, and was indicating the necessity of the 
repeal of a law which was considered as an indispensable party 
measure by the most of Mr. Lincoln’s constituents. 

For weeks the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln had been taxed to 
devise some artifice for the relief of Fort Sumter, short of 
open military reinforcements (decided to be impracticable), 
and which would have the effect of inaugurating the war by a 
safe indirection and under a plausible and convenient pretence. 
The device was at length hit upon. It was accomplished by 
the most flagrant perfidy. Mr. Seward had already given 
assurances to the Southern commissioners, through the inter¬ 
mediation of Judge Campbell, that the Federal troops would 
be removed from Fort Sumter. Referring to the draft of a 
letter which Judge Campbell had in his hand, and proposed to 
address to President Davis, at Montgomery, lie said, “ before 
that letter reaches its destination, Fort Sumter will have been 
evacuated.” Some time elapsed, and there was reason to dis¬ 
trust the promise. Colonel Lamon, an agent of the Washington 
government, was sent to Charleston, and was reported to be 
authorized to make arrangements with Governor Pickens, of 
South Carolina, for the withdrawal of the Federal troops from 
Fort Sumter. He returned without any accomplishment of 


50 


THE FIRST YEAR OF TOE WAR. 


liis reported mission. Another confidential agent of Mr. Lin¬ 
coln, a Mr. Fox, was permitted to visit Fort Sumter, and was 
discovered to have acted the part of a spy in carrying concealed 
dispatches to Major Anderson, and collecting information with 
reference to a plan for the forcible reinforcement of the fort. 
On the 7th of April, Judge Campbell, uneasy as to the good 
faith of Mr. Seward’s promise of the evacuation of Sumter, 
addressed him another note on the subject. To this the 
emphatic and laconic reply was: “Faith as to Sumter fully 
leejpt—wait and see” Six days thereafter a hostile fleet was 
menacing Charleston, the Lincoln government threw down 
the gauntlet of war, and the battle of Sumter was fought. 

On the day succeeding the inauguration of Abraham Lin¬ 
coln, General P. G. Toutant Beauregard* was put in command 
of the Confederate troops besieging Fort Sumter. His mili¬ 
tary record was slight, but gave evidence of genius. He was 
the son of a wealthy and influential Louisiana planter. He 
had graduated at the military academy at West Point, taking 
the second honors in his class, and had served in the Mexican 
war with distinction, being twice brevetted for gallant and 
meritorious conduct in the field—the first time as captain for 
the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco, and again as major 
for the battle of Chapultepec. He was subsequently placed 
by the Federal government in charge of the construction of 
the mint and custom-house at Hew Orleans. He had been or¬ 
dered by Mr. Buchanan to West Point as superintendent of 
the military academy. The appointment was revoked within 
forty-eight hours for a spiteful reason—the family connection 
of the nominee with Mr. Slidell, of Louisiana; and Major 
Beauregard, resigning his commission at once, received higher 
rank in the army of the Southern Confederacy. 


* Beauregard is forty years of age. He is small, brown, tliin, extremely 
vigorous, although his features wear a dead expression, and his hair has 
whitened prematurely. Face, physiognomy, tongue, accent—every thing about 
him is French. He is quick, a little abrupt, but well educated and distin¬ 
guished in liis manners. He does not care to express the manifestation of an 
ardent personality which knows its worth. He is extremely impassioned in 
the defence of the cause which he serves. At least he takes less pains to con¬ 
ceal his passion under a calm and cold exterior than do most of his comrades 
in the army. The South found in him a man of an uncommon ardor, a cease¬ 
less activity, and an indomitable power of will. 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


51 


On taking command of the Confederate forces at Charleston, 
General Beauregard at once gave the benefit of his eminent 
skill as a military engineer, which merit had been recognized 
in him before, and had procured his elevation to the important 
and critical command in front of Fort Sumter, to the con¬ 
struction of works for the reduction of the fort, and the de¬ 
fence of the entrances to the harbor. At the time of Major 
Anderson’s removal to Sumter, the approaches to the harbor 
were only defended by the uninjured guns at Fort Moultrie, 
and three 24-pounder guns mounted en barbette on a hastily 
constructed and imperfect earthwork on Morris’ Island. The 
injured guns were replaced, and all, amounting to thirty-eight 
in number, of various calibres, were protected by well-con¬ 
structed merlons; lines of batteries were constructed on the 
east and west on Sullivan’s Island; at Cummings’ Point on 
Morris’ Island, the nearest land to Fort Sumter, batteries of 
mortars and columbiads were erected, protected by an iron 
fortification of novel and formidable construction ; and another 
novelty in iron fortifications was perfected by the skilful and 
practical genius of the commander in a floating battery, con¬ 
structed of the peculiarly fibrous palmetto timber, sheathed 
with plate iron, and embrasured for and mounting four guns 
of heavy calibre. 

Notwithstanding the extent and skill of the besiegers’ works, 
Fort Sumter was declared, by a number of military critics, to 
be impregnable. It certainly had that appearance <to the un¬ 
scientific eye. The fortification, a modern truncated pentag¬ 
onal fort, rose abruptly out of the water at the mouth of 
Charleston harbor, three and a half miles from the city. It 
was built on an artificial island, having for its base a sand and 
mud bank, which had been made secure by long and weary 
labors in firmly imbedding in it refuse blocks and chips from 
the granite quarries of the Northern States. The foundation 
alone had cost the government half a million of dollars, and 
had occupied ten years in its construction. At the time of 
Major Anderson’s occupation of the fortification, it was so 
nearly completed as to admit the introduction of its armament. 
The walls were of soljd brick and concrete masonry, sixty feet 
high and from eight to twelve feet in thickness, and pierced 
for three tiers of guns on the northern, eastern, and western 


52 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


exterior sides, They were built close to the edge of the water 
and without a berme. 

The advantages of delay which the Lincoln government had 
obtained by the pretence of the evacuation of Sumter, and the 
adroitness of Mr. Seward with the commissioners, had been 
profitably employed by it in naval and other ' preparations for 
its meditated blow on the Southern coasts. Unusual activity 
was perceptible in all the dock-yards, armories, and military 
depots throughout the North. The arsenals of Troy and Wa¬ 
tertown were constantly occupied, and the creaking of blocks, 
the clang of hammers, and the hum of midnight labor re¬ 
sounded through every manufactory of arms. Numerous 
large transports were employed by the government for the con¬ 
veyance of soldiers and war material, and the signs of the 
times betokened that the administration was preparing for a 
long and bloody struggle. Within ten days from the first of 
April, over eleven thousand men were sent from Fort Hamil¬ 
ton and Governor’s Island. The recruiting offices in New York 
were daily engaged in enrolling men for the Federal service. 
On the 6th of April, the frigate Powhatan was ready for sea, 
and, with her armament of ten heavy guns and four hundred 
men, prepared as convoy to the transports Atlantic, Baltic, and 
Illinois. On the 8th, the Atlantic sailed with Barry’s battery 
(four guns and ninety-one men), four hundred soldiers and a 
large store of supplies. The same morning the steam-cutter 
Harriet Lane, Captain J. Faunce, eight guns and one hundred 
men, sailed for Charleston harbor. Late at night, the trans¬ 
port Baltic, with twenty surf-boats, stores, and two hundred 
recruits from Governor’s Island, and the transport Illinois, 
with five hundred cases of muskets, stores, three hundred sol¬ 
diers, and the steam-tug Freeborn, sailed from New York har¬ 
bor. On the whole, besides the Powhatan, eleven vessels 
were ordered to be got in readiness,, with an aggregate force 
of 285 guns and 2400 men. There was now not the slightest 
doubt that the first blow of the rival forces would be struck 
at Sumter. The fleet dispatched to Charleston harbor con¬ 
sisted of the sloop-of-war Pawnee, the sloop-of-war Powhatan, 
and the cutter Harriet Lane, with three steam transports. 

No sooner was the hostile fleet of the Federal government 
safely on its way to the Southern coasts, than the perfidy of 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


53 


Abraham Lincoln and liis advisers was openly and shamelessly 
consummated. The mask was dropped. The Southern com¬ 
missioners who had been so long cozened, were distinctly re¬ 
buffed ; and simultaneously with the appearance of the Fed¬ 
eral fleet in the offing of the Charleston harbor, an official 
message, on the 8th day of April, was conveyed to Governor 
Pickens, of South Carolina, by Lieutenant Talbot, an author¬ 
ized agent of the Lincoln government, announcing the deter¬ 
mination of that government to send provisions to Fort Sum¬ 
ter, “ peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must.” The mes¬ 
sage was telegraphed by General Beauregard to Montgomery, 
and the instructions of his government asked. He was an¬ 
swered by a telegram from Mr. Walker, the Secretary of War, 
instructing him to demand the evacuation of the fort, and, if 
that was refused, to proceed to reduce it. The demand was 
made; it was refused. Major Anderson replied that he re¬ 
gretted that his sense of honor and of his obligations to his 
government prevented his compliance with the demand. 
Nothing was left but to accept the distinct challenge of the 
Lincoln government to arms. 

The most intense excitement prevailed in Charleston. No 
sooner had the official message of Mr. Lincoln been received, 
than orders were issued to the entire military force of the city 
to proceed to their stations. Four regiments of one thousand 
men each, were telegraphed for from the country. Ambu¬ 
lances for the wounded were prepared; surgeons weije ordered 
to their posts, and every preparation made for a regular battle. 
Among the portentous signs, the community was thrown into 
a fever of excitement by the discharge of seven guns from the 
Capitol Square, the signal for the assembling of all the re¬ 
serves ten minutes afterwards. Hundreds of men left their 
beds, hurrying to and fro towards their respective locations. 
In the absence of sufficient armories, the corners of the streets, 
the public squares, and other convenient points formed places 
of meeting. All night long the roll of the drum and the 
steady tramp of the military and the gallop of the cavalry, re¬ 
sounding through the city, betokened the progress of prepara¬ 
tion for the long-expected hostilities. The Home Guard corps 
of old gentlemen, who occupied the position of military ex¬ 
empts, rode through the city, arousing the soldiers and doing 


54 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


otlier duty required at the moment. Hundreds of the citizens 
were up all night. A terrible thunder-storm prevailed until 
a late hour, but in nowise interfered with the ardor of the 
soldiers. 

On the 12th day of April, at half-past four o’clock in the 
morning, fire was opened upon Fort Sumter. The firing was 
deliberate, and was continued, without interruption, for twelve 
hours. The iron battery at Cumming’s Point did the most 
effective service, perceptibly injuring the walls of the fortifica¬ 
tion, while the floating battery dismounted two of the parapet 
guns. The shell batteries were served with skill and effect, 
shells being thrown into the fort every twenty minutes. The 
fort had replied steadily during the day. About dark, its fire 
fell off, while ours was continued at intervals during the night. 
The contest had. been watched during the day by excited and 
anxious citizens from every available point of observation in 
Charleston—the battery, the shipping in the harbor, and the 
steeples of churches—and, as night closed, the illuminations 
of the shells, as they coursed the air, added a strange sublimity 
to the scene to men who had never before witnessed the fiery 
splendors of a bombardment. The next morning, at seven 
o’clock, the fort resumed its fire, doing no damage of conse¬ 
quence. A short while thereafter, the fort was discovered to 
be on fire, and through the smoke and glare, its flag was dis¬ 
covered at half mast, as a signal of distress. The Federal 
fleet, which was off the bar, contrary to all expectations, re¬ 
mained quietly where it was ; they did not remove from tlieir 
anchorage or fire a gun. In the mean time, the conflagration, 
which had seized upon the officers’ quarters and barracks at the 
fort, continued; it no longer responded to our fire, which was 
kept up with an anxious look-out for tokens of surrender ; its 
garrison, black and begrimed with smoke, were employed in ‘ 
efforts to extinguish the conflagration, and in some instances 
had to keep themselves lying upon their faces to avoid death 
from suffocation. During the height of the conflagration, a 
boat was dispatched by General Beauregard to Major Ander¬ 
son, with offers of assistance in extinguishing the fire. Before . 
it could reach the fort, the long-expected flag of truce had 
been hoisted ; and the welcome event was instantly announced 
in every part of the city by the ringing of bells, the pealing 


I 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 55 

of cannon, the shouts of couriers dashing through the streets, 
and by every indication of general rejoicing. Major Ander¬ 
son agreed to an unconditional surrender, as demanded of him ; 
lie received of his enemy in return, the most distinguished 
marks of lenity and consideration : his sword was returned to 
him by General Beauregard; himself and garrison allowed to 
take passage, at their convenience, for New York; and, on 
leaving the fort, he was permitted to salute his flag with fifty 
guns, the performance of which was attended with the melan¬ 
choly occurrence of mortal injuries to four of his men by the 
bursting of two cannon. There was no other life lost in the 
whole affair. 

Thus ended the bombardment of Sumter. It had continued 
during two days; it was estimated that two thousand shots 
had been fired in all; a frowning fortification had been reduced 
to a blackened mass of ruins; and yet not a life had been lost, 
or a limb injured in the engagement. 

The news of the fall of Fort Sumter, when it was received in 
Washington, did not disturb President Lincoln. He received 
it with remarkable calmness. The usual drawing-room enter¬ 
tainment at the White House was not intermitted on the even¬ 
ing of the day of the commencement of civil war. The same 
evening the President turned to a Western Senator and asked, 
“ Will your State sustain me with military power He made 
no other comment on the news, which was agitating every part 
of the country to its foundation. 

The fact was that the President had long ago calculated the 
result and the effect, on the country, of the hostile movements 
which he had directed against the sovereignty of South Car¬ 
olina. He had procured the battle of Sumter; he had no de¬ 
sire or hope to retain the fort: the circumstances of the battle 
and the non-participation of his fleet in it, were sufficient evi¬ 
dences, to every honest and reflecting mind, that it was not a 
contest for victory, and that “the sending provisions to a 
starving garrison” was an ingenious artifice to commence the 
war that the Federal Government had fully resolved upon, 
under the specious but shallow appearance of that government 
being involved by the force of circumstances, rather than by 
its own volition, in the terrible consequence of civil war. 

On the 14th day of April, Mr. Lincoln published his proc- 


56 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


lamation of war. He acted to the last in a sinister spirit. 
He had just assured the commissioners from Virginia, who had 
been deputed to ascertain the purposes of his government, that 
he would modify his inaugural only so far as to “ perhaps cause 
the United States mails to be withdrawn” from the seceded 
States. The following proclamation was the u modification” 
of the inaugural: 

“ Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and 
now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by 
combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial 
proceeding, or by the powers vested in the Marshals by law— 

“ Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in 
virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have 
thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth the militia of the several 
States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in 
order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. 
The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State au¬ 
thorities through the War Department. 

“ I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to main¬ 
tain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and 
the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long 
enough endured. 

“ I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby 
called forth, will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which 
have been seized from the Union ; and in every event the utmost care will be 
observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation and 
destruction of, or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful 
citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the persons com¬ 
posing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their re¬ 
spective abodes within twenty days from this date. 

********* 

" ABRAHAM LINCOLN.” 


The trick of the government, to which we have referred, in 
its procurement of the battle of Sumter, is too dishonest and 
shallow to account for the immense reaction of sentiment in 
the North that ensued. That reaction is certainly to be attrib¬ 
uted to causes more intelligent and permanent than the weak 
fallacy that the Lincoln government was not responsible for 
the hostilities in Charleston harbor, and that the South itself 
had dragged the government and people of Abraham Lincoln 
unwillingly into the inauguration of war. The problem of 
this reaction may be more justly so ] ved. In fact, it involved 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


57 


no new fact or principle. The Northern people, including all 
parties, secretly appreciated the value of the Union to them¬ 
selves ; they knew that they would be ruined by a permanent 
secession of the Southern States; many of them had sought 
to bring the dissatisfied States back into the Union by the old 
resource of artful speeches and fine promises; and finding, at 
last, that, the South was in earnest, and was no longer to be 
seduced by cheap professions, they quickly and sharply deter¬ 
mined to coerce what they could not cozen. This is the whole 
explanation of the wonderful reaction. The North discovered, 
by the fiery dmouement in Charleston harbor, that the South 
was in earnest, and itself became as instantly in earnest. The 
sudden display of Northern rancor was no reaction; it was 
no new fact; it revealed what was already historical, and had 
been concealed only for purposes of policy—the distinct and 
sharp antipathy between the two sections, of which war or 
separation, at some time, was bound to be the logical conclu¬ 
sion. 

The crusade against the South involved all parties, and 
united every interest in the North by the common bond of at¬ 
tachment to the Union. That attachment had its own reasons. 
The idea of the restoration of the Union was conceived* in no 
historical enthusiasm for restoring past glories; it was ani¬ 
mated by no patriotic desires contemplating the good of the 
whole country ; the South was to be “ whipped back into the 
Union,’’ to gratify either the selfishness of the North, or its 
worse lusts of revenge and fanaticism. The holiness of the 
crusade against the South was preached alike from the hustings 
and the pulpit. The Northern Democratic party, which had 
so long professed regard for the rights of the Southern States, 
and even sympathy with the first movements of their secession, 
rivalled the Abolitionists in their expressions of fury and re¬ 
venge ; their leaders followed the tide of public opinion : Mr. 
Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, who some months before 
had declared in a public speech that if the seceded States were 
“ determined to separate, we had better part in peace,” tecame 
a rhetorical advocate of the war; Daniel S. Dickinson, of 
New York, rivalled the Abolition leaders in his State in in¬ 
flaming the public mind; and in the city of New York, where 
but a few months before it had been said that the Southern 


58 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Confederacy would be able to recruit several regiments for its 
military service, demagogues in the ranks of the “National 
Democracy,” such as John Cochrane, harangued the multi¬ 
tude, advising them to “ crush the rebellion,” and, if need be, 
to drown the whole South in one indiscriminate sea of blood. 
Old contentions and present animosities were forgotten ; Dem¬ 
ocrats associated with recreants, and fanatics in one grand 
league for one grand purpose; foreigners from Europe were 
induced into the belief that they were called upon to tight for 
the u liberty” for which they had crossed the ocean, or for the 
“ free homesteads” which were to be the rewards of the war ; 
and all cbnceivable and reckless artifices were resorted to to 
swell the tide of numbers against the South. New England, 
which had been too conscientious to defend the national honor 
in the war with Great Britain, poured out almost her whole 
population to aid in the extermination of a people wdio had 
given to the nation all the military glory it had achieved.* 

* In the war of 1812, the North furnished 58,552 soldiers; the South, 
96,812—making a majority of 87,030 in favor of the South. Of the number 


furnished by the North— 

Massachusetts furnished.8,110 

New Hampshire “ 897 

Connecticut “ 387 

Rhode Island “ 637 

Vermont “ 181 

* 5,162 

While the little State of South Carolina furnished 5,696. 

In the Mexican war, 

Massachusetts furnished.1,047 

New Hampshire “ 1 

The other New England States.0,000 


1,048 

The whole number of troops contributed by the North to the Mexican war 
was 23,054; while the South contributed 43,630, very nearly double, and, in 
proportion to her population, four times as many soldiers as the North. 

When a resolution was introduced into the Legislature of Massachusetts, 
tendering a vote of thinks to the heroic Lawrence for his capture of the Pea 
cock, that pious State refused to adopt it, and declared— 

“ That in a war like the present, waged without justifiable cause, and pros¬ 
ecuted in a manner indicating that conquest and ambition are its real motives, 
it is not becoming a moral and religious people to express any approbation of 
military and naval exploits not directly connected with the defence of our sea- 
coast and our soil.” 












THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


59 


The effect of Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation at the South was 
no less decisive than at the North. It remains a problem, 
which facts were never permitted to decide, but the solution of 
which may at least be approached by the logical considerations 
ol history, to what extent the Border Slave States might have 
been secured to the Union by the policy of peace, and the sim¬ 
ple energy of patience on the part of the government at 
Washington. As it was, the proclamation presented a new is* 
sue ; it superseded that of the simple policy of secession ; and 
it inaugurated the second secessionary movement of the South¬ 
ern States on a basis infinitely higher and firmer, in all its 
moral and constitutional aspects, than that of the first move¬ 
ment of the Cotton States. 

The proclamation was received at Montgomery with derisive 
laughter ; the newspapers were refreshed with the Lincolniana 
of styling sovereign States “ unlawful combinations,” and 
warning a people standing on their own soil to return within 
twenty days to their “ homesand, in Virginia, the Seces¬ 
sionists were hugely delighted at the strength Mr. Lincoln 
had unwittingly or perversely contributed to their cause. On& 
after the other of the Border States refused the demands for 
their quotas in terms of scorn and defiance. Governor Bector,. 
of Arkansas, repudiated the proclamation with an expression 
of concentrated defiance; Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, 
replied, that that State would “ furnish no troops for the 
wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States;” 
Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, telegraphed to Washing¬ 
ton, “ I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of 


Subsequently the famous Hartford Convention was called. It assembled 
in the city of Hartford, on the 15th of December, 1814, and remained in ses¬ 
sion twenty days. It made a report accompanied by a series of Resolutions.. 
The following is a part of the report, as adopted : 

“ In cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infractions of the Consti 
tution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and the liberties of the people, it 
is not only the right, but the duty, of each State to interpose its authority for their 
protection in the manner best calculated to secure that end. When emergencies 
occur which are either beyond the reach of judicial tribunals, or too pressing 
to admit of the delay incident to their forms, States, which have no common 
umpire, must be their own judges and execute their oum decisions .” 

This is the doctrine which the South had always held from the beginning, 
and for which the South is now pouring out her blood and treasure 


5 



60 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE "WAR* 


this country, and especially to this war which is being waged 
upon a free and independent people;” Governor Jackson, of 
Missouri, replied directly to Mr. Lincoln, “ Your requisition 
in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary, 
and, in its objects, inhuman and diabolicaland even the 
unspirited governor of Virginia, John Letcher, constrained by 
the policy of the time-server to reflect the changes which had 
become apparent to him in the uprising indignation of the 
people, ventured upon a remonstrance to President Lincoln, 
reminding him that his proclamation was “ not within the 
purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795.” The only 
Southern governor that signified any degree of submission to 
the proclamation was the notorious Thomas Holladay Hicks, 
of Maryland ; he gave verbal assurances to Mr. Lincoln that 
that State would supply her quota and give him military sup¬ 
port ; but, at the same time, with an art and effrontery that 
only a demagogue could attain, he published a proclamation to 
the people of Maryland, assuring them of his neutrality, and 
promising that an opportunity would be given them, in the 
election of congressmen, to determine, of their own free will, 
whether they would sustain the old Union, or assist the South¬ 
ern Confederacy. 

On the 17th day of April, the Virginia Convention passed 
an ordinance of secession. It was an important era in the 
history of the times. It gave the eighth State to the Southern 
Confederacy. The position of Virginia was a commanding 
one with the other Border States; she started, by her act of 
secession, the second important movement of the revolution; 
and she added to the moral influence of the event by the fact, 
that she had not seceded on an issue of policy, but on one of 
distinct and practical constitutional right, and that too in the 
face of a war, which had become absolutely’inevitable and was 
frowning upon her own borders. 


Virginia had been chided for her delay in following the 
Cotton States out of the Union, and, on the other hand, when 
she did secede, she was charged by the Northern politicians 
with being inconsistent and having kept bad faith in her rela¬ 
tions with the Federal government. Both complaints were 
equally without foundation. The record of the State was 
singularly explicit and clear. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


61 


The Virginia Resolutions of ’98 and ’99 had for sixty years 
constituted the text-book of the State Rights politicians of the 
South. The doctrine of State sovereignty was therein vindi¬ 
cated and maintained, and the right and duty of States, suf¬ 
fering grievances from unjust and unconstitutional Federal 
legislation, to judge of the wrongs, as well as of “ the mode 
and measure of redress,” were made clear. The Virginia plat¬ 
form, as thus laid down in the elder Adams’ time, was adopted 
by the “Strict Constructionist” party of that day, and has 
been reasserted ever since. Mr. Jefferson, the founder of the 
Democratic party in this country, was elected upon this plat¬ 
form, and his State Rights successors all acknowledged its 
orthodoxy. Whenever there arose a conflict between Federal 
and State authority, the voice of Virginia was the first to be 
heard in behalf of State Rights. In 1832-33, when the Tariff 
and Nullification controversy arose, Virginia, though not 
agreeing with South Carolina as to the particular remedy to 
which she resorted, yet assured that gallant State of her sym¬ 
pathy, and, at the same time, reasserted her old doctrines of 
State Rights. Her gallant and patriotic governor, John Floyd, 
the elder, declared that Federal troops should not pass the 
banks of the Potomac to coerce South Carolina into obedience 
to the tariff laws, unless over his dead body. Her Legislature 
was almost unanimously opposed to the coercion policy, and a 
majority of that body indicated their recognition of the right 
of a State to secede from the Hnion. The voice of Virginia 
was potential in settling this controversy upon conditions to 
which the Palmetto State could agree with both honor and 
consistency. At every stage of the agitation of the slavery 
question in Congress and in the Northern States, Virginia 
declared her sentiments and her purposes in a manner not to 
be misunderstood by friend or foe. Again and again did she 
enter upon her legislative records, in ineffable characters, the 
declaration that she would resist the aggressive spirit of the 
Northern majority, even to the disruption of the ties that 
bound her to the Hnion. 

With almost entire unanimity, Virginia' had resolved in 
legislative council, in 1848, that she would not submit to the 
passage of the Wilmot proviso, or any kindred measure. From 
the date of the organization of the Anti-Slavery party, her 


62 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


people, of all parties, had declared that the election of an 
Abolitionist to the Presidency would be a virtual declaration 
of war against the South on the part of the North, and that 
Virginia and every other Slave State ought to resist it as such. 
The Legislature that assembled a few weeks after Lincoln’s 
election declared in effect, with only four dissenting voices, 
that the interests of Virginia were thoroughly identified with 
those of the other Southern States, and that any intimation, 
from any source, that her people were looking to any combi¬ 
nation in the last resort other than union with them, was un¬ 
patriotic and treasonable. 

The sovereign Convention of Virginia, elected on the 4th of 
February, 1861, for a long time lingered in the hope that the 
breach that had taken place in the Union might be repaired 
by new constitutional guaranties. Nevertheless, that body, 
before it had yet determined to pass an ordinance of secession 
—while it was, in fact, hopeful that the Union would be saved 
through the returning sanity of the Northern people—adopted 
unanimously the following resolution: 

“ The people of Virginia recognize the American principle, that government 
is founded in the consent of the governed, and the right of the people of the 
several States of this Union, for just cause, to withdraw from their associ¬ 
ation under the Federal government, with the people of the other States, 
and to erect new governments for their better security; and they never 
will consent that the Federal power, which is, in part, their power, shall be 
exerted for the purpose of subjugating the people of such States to the Federal 
authority.” 

The entire antecedents of Virginia were known to Mr. Lin¬ 
coln and his Cabinet. They knew that she was solemnly 
pledged, at whatever cost, to separate from the Union in the 
very contingency they had brought about—namely, the at¬ 
tempt to subjugate her sister States of the South. They knew 
that the original “ Union men,” as well as the original Seces¬ 
sionists, were committed beyond the possibility of recantation 
to resistance to the death of any and every coercive measure of 
the Federal government. Nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln and his 
advisers had the temerity to make a call upon the State of 
Virginia to furnish her quota of seventy-five thousand men to 
subjugate the seceded States. They had but little right to be 
surprised at the course taken by the State, and still less to 
charge it with inconsistency or perfidy. 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


63 


It was expected that Maryland might follow the heroic 
course of Virginia, and but two days after the secession of the 
latter State, there were indications in Maryland of a spirit of 
emulation of the daring and adventurous deeds that had been 
enacted South of the Potomac. On the 19th of April the 
passage of Northern volunteers, on their way to Washington, 
was intercepted and assailed by the citizens of Baltimore, and 
for more than two weeks the route through that city was effect¬ 
ually closed to Mr. Lincoln’s mercenaries. The Baltimore 
“ riot,” as it was called, was one of the most remarkable col¬ 
lisions of the times. A number of Massachusetts volunteers, 
passing through Baltimore in horse cars, found the track bar¬ 
ricaded near one of the docks by stones, sand, and old anchors 
thrown upon it, and were compelled to attempt the passage to 
the depot, at the other end of the city, on foot. They had not 
advanced fifteen paces after leaving the cars when they found 
their passage blocked by a crowd of excited citizens, who 
taunted them as mercenaries, and flouted a Southern flag at 
the head of their column. Stones were thrown by a portion of 
the crowd, when the troops presented arms and fired. The 
crowd was converted into an infuriated mob; the fire W'as re¬ 
turned from a number of revolvers ; the soldiers were attacked 
with sticks, stones, and every conceivable weapon, and in more 
than one instance their muskets were actually wrung from 
their hands by desperate and unarmed men. Unable to with¬ 
stand the gathering crowd, and bewildered by their mode of 
attack, the troops pressed along the street confused, and stag¬ 
gering, breaking into a run whenever there was an opportunity 
to do & so, and turning at intervals to fire upon the citizens who 
pursued them. As they reached the depot they found a crowd 
already collected there and gathering from every point in the 
city. The other troops of the Massachusetts regiment who had 
preceded them in the horse cars had been pursued .by the 
people along the route, and the soldiers did not hesitate to 
stretch themselves at full length on the floors of the cars, to 
avoid the missiles thrown through the windows. The. scene 
that ensued at the depot was terrific. Taunts, clothed in the 
most fearful language, were hurled at the troops by the panting 
crowd who, almost breathless with running, pressed up to the 
windows, presenting knives and revolvers, and cursing up in 


6 * 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


the faces of the soldiers. A wild cry was raised on the plat' 
form, and a dense crowd rushed out, spreading itself along the 
railroad track, until for a mile it was black with the excited, 
rushing mass. The crowd, as they went, filled the track with 
obstructions; the police who, throughout the whole affair, had 
contended for order with the most devoted courage, followed 
in full run removing the obstructions; as far as the eye could 
reach the track was crowded with the pursuers and pursued, a 
struggling and shouting mass of human beings. In the midst 
of the excitement the train moved off; and as it passed from 
the depot a dozen muskets were fired by the soldiers into the 
people that lined the track, the volley killing an estimable 
citizen who had been drawn to the spot only as a spectator. 
The results of the riot were serious enough: two of the soldiers 
were shot; several of the citizens had been killed, and more 
than twenty variously wounded. 

The excitement in Baltimore continued for weeks; the 
bridges on the railroad to the Susquehanna were destroyed; 
the regular route of travel broken up, and some twenty or 
twenty-five thousand Northern volunteers, on their way to 
Washington, detained at Havre de Grace, a portion of them 
only managing to reach their destination by the way of Annap¬ 
olis. On the night of the day of the riot, a mass-meeting was 
held in Monument Square, and was addressed by urgent ap¬ 
peals for the secession of Maryland, and speeches of defiance 
to the Lincoln government. Governor Hicks, alarmed by the 
display of public sentiment, affected to yield to it. He ad¬ 
dressed the crowd in person, condemning the coercive policy 
of the government, and ending with the fervid declaration, “ I 
will suffer my right arm to be torn from my body before I will 
raise it to strike a sister State.” The same man, in less than a 
month thereafter, when Maryland had fallen within the grasp 
of the Federal government, did not hesitate to make a call 
upon the people for four regiments of volunteers to assist that 
government in its then fully declared policy of a war of inva¬ 
sion and fell destruction upon the South. 

In the city of St. Louis there were collisions between the 
citizens and soldiery as well as in Baltimore; but in Missouri 
the indications of sympathy with the South did not subside or 
allow themselves to be choked by spectral fears of the “ crucial 




THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


65 


experiment of secession”—they grew and strengthened in the 
face of all the Federal power could do. 

The riots in Maryland and Missouri were, however, only inci¬ 
dents in the history of the period in which they occurred. 
That history is occupied with far more important and general 
events, indicating the increased and rapid preparations, North 
and South, for war; the'collection of resources, and the policy 
and spirit in which the gathering contest was to he conducted. 

Mr. Lincoln had, on the 19th of April, published his proc¬ 
lamation, declaring the ports of the Southern Confederacy in 
a state of blockade, and denouncing any molestation of Federal 
vessels on the high seas as piracy. The Provisional Congress 
at Montgomery had formerly recognized the existence of war 
with the North, and letters of marque had been issued by the 
Confederate authority. The theatre of the war on land was 
indicated in Virginia. General Lee, who had resigned a com¬ 
mission as colonel of cavalry in the old United States army, 
was put in command of all the Confederate States forces in 
Virginia. 

That State was the particular object of the rancor of the 
government at Washington, which proceeded to inaugurate 
hostilities on her territory by two acts of ruthless vandalism. 
On the 19th day of April the Federals evacuated Harper’s 
Ferry, after an attempt to destroy the buildings and machine- 
shops there, which only partially succeeded—the armory build¬ 
ings being destroyed, but a train to blow up the machine- 
shop failed, and a large quantity of valuable machinery was 
uninjured. On the succeeding day, preparations were made 
for the destruction of the Navy Yard at Norfolk, while Federal 
reinforcements were thrown into Fortress Monroe. The work 
of vandalism was not as fully completed as the enemy had de¬ 
signed, the dry-dock, which alone cost several millions of dol¬ 
lars, being but little damaged ; but the destruction of property 
was immense, and attended by a terrible conflagration, which 
at one time threatened the city of Norfolk. 

All the ships in the harbor, excepting the old frigate the 
United States, were set fire to and scuttled. They were the 
Pennsylvania, the Columbus and Delaware, the steam-frigate 
Merrimac (she was only partially destroyed), the sloops Ger¬ 
mantown and Plymouth, the frigates Paritan and Columbia, 


66 


TIIE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


and the brig Dolphin. The Germantown was lying at the 
wharf under a large pair of shears, which w( re thrown across 
her decks by cutting loose the guys. The ship was nearly cut 
in two and sunk at the wharf. About midnight an alarm was 
given that the Navy Yard was on fire. A sickly blaze, that 
seemed neither to diminish nor increase, continued fry several 
hours. Men were kept busy all night transferring every thing 
of value from the Pennsylvania and Navy Yard to the Pawnee 
and Cumberland, and both vessels were loaded to their lower 
ports. At length four o’clock came, and with it flood-tide. 
A rocket shot up from the Pawnee, and then, almost in an in¬ 
stant, the whole front of the Navy Yard seemed one vast 
sheet of flame. The next minute streaks of flame flashed 
along the rigging of the Pennsylvania and the other doomed 
ships, and soon they were completely wrapped in the devouring 
element. The harbor was now one blaze of light. The re¬ 
motest objects were distinctly visible. The surging flames 
leaped and roared with mad violence, making their hoarse 
wrath heard at the distance of several miles. The people of 
Hampton, even those who lived beyond, saw the red light, 
and thought all Norfolk was on fire. It was certainly a grand 
though terrible spectacle to witness. In the midst of the 
brilliance of the scene, the Pawnee with the Cumberland in 
tow, stole like a guilty thing through the harbor, fleeing from 
the destruction they had been sent to accomplish. 

The Lincoln government had reason to be exasperated to¬ 
wards Virginia. The second secessionary movement, com¬ 
menced by that State, added three other States to the Southern 
Confederacy. Tennessee seceded from the Union, the 6th of 
May; on the 18th day of May, the State of Arkansas was 
formally admitted into the Southern Confederacy; and on the 
21st of the same month, the sovereign Convention of North 
Carolina, without delay, and by a unanimous vote, passed an 
ordinance of secession. 

The spirit of the rival governments gave indications to dis¬ 
cerning minds of a civil war of gigantic proportions, infinite 
consequences, and indefinite duration. In every portion of the 
South, the most patriotic devotion was exhibited. Transporta¬ 
tion companies freely tendered the use of their lines for trans¬ 
portation and supplies. The presidents of the Southern rail- 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


67 


roads consented Hot only to reduce their rates for mail ser- 
Yice and conveyance for troops and munitions of war, but vol¬ 
untarily proffered to take their compensation in bonds of the 
Confederacy, for the purpose of leaving all the resources of 
the government at its disposal for the common defence. Un¬ 
der the act of the Provisional Congress authorizing a loan, pro¬ 
posals issued for the subscription of five millions of dollars 
were answered by the prompt subscription of more, than eight 
millions by its own citizens; and not a bid was made under 
par. Requisitions for troops were met with such alacrity that, 
the number in every instance, tendering their services, ex¬ 
ceeded the demand. Under the bill for public defence, one 
hundred thousand volunteers were authorized to be accepted 
by the Confederate States government for a twelve months’ 
term of service. The gravity of age and the zeal of youth ri¬ 
valled each other to be foremost in the public service; every 
village bristled with bayonets; large forces were put m the 
field at Charleston, Pensacola, Ports Morgan, Jackson, St. 
Philip, and Pulaski; while formidable numbers from all parts 
of the Confederacy were gathered in Virginia, on what was 
now becoming the immediate theatre of the war. On the 20th 
day of May, the seat of government was removed from Mont¬ 
gomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, and President 
Davis was welcomed in the latter city with a burst of genuine 
joy and enthusiasm, to which none of the military pageants of 
the North could furnish a parallel. 

It had been supposed that' the Southern people, poor in man¬ 
ufactures as they were, and in the haste of preparation for the 
mighty contest that was to ensue, would find themselves but 
illy provided with arms to contend with an enemy rich in the 
means and munitions of war. This disadvantage had been 
provided against by the timely act of one man. Mr. Floyd, 
of Virginia, when Secretary of War under Mr. Buchanans 
administration, had by a single order effected the transfer of 
115,000 improved muskets and rifles from the Springfield ar¬ 
mory and Watervliet arsenal to different arsenals at the South. 
Adding to these the number of arms distributed by the Fed¬ 
eral government to the States in preceding years of our history, 
and those purchased by the States and citizens, it was safely 
estimated that the South entered upon the war with one hun- 


68 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


dred and fifty thousand small-arms of the most approved 
modern pattern and the best in the world. 

The government at Washington rapidly collected in that city 
a vast and motley army. Baltimore had been subdued; the 
route through it was restored; and such were the facilities of 
Northern transportation, that it was estimated that not less 
than four or five thousand volunteers were transported through 
the former Thermopylae of Baltimore in a single day. The 
first evidences of the despotic purposes of the Lincoln govern¬ 
ment were exhibited in Maryland, and the characteristics of 
the war that it had commenced on the South were first dis¬ 
played in the crushing weight of tyranny and oppression it 
laid upon a State which submitted before it was conquered. 

The Legislature of Maryland did nothing practical. It was 
unable to arm the State, and it made no attempt to improve 
the spirit of the people, or to make preparations for any future 
opportunity of action. It assented to the attitude of submis¬ 
sion indefinitely. It passed resolutions protesting against the 
military occupation of the State by the Federal government, 
and indicating sympathy with the South, but concluding with 
the declaration: “ under existing circumstances, it is inexpe¬ 
dient to call a sovereign Convention of the State at this time, 
or take any measures for the immediate organization or arming 
of the militia.” The government of Abraham Lincoln was not 
a government to spare submission or to be moved to magna¬ 
nimity by the helplessness of a supposed enemy. The submis¬ 
sion of Maryland was the signal for its persecution. By the 
middle of May, her territory was occupied by thirty thousand 
Federal troops; her quota of troops to the war was demanded 
at Washington, and was urged by a requisition of her obsequi¬ 
ous governor; the city of Baltimore was invested by General 
Butler of Massachusetts, houses and stores searched for con¬ 
cealed arms, and the liberties of the people violated, with every 
possible addition of mortification and insult. 

In a few weeks the rapid and aggravated progression of acts 
of despotism on the part of the Lincoln government reached 
its height in Maryland. The authority of the mayor and po¬ 
lice board of the city of Baltimore was superseded, and their 
persons seized and imprisoned in a military fortress; the writ 
of habeas corpus was suspended by the single and unconstitu- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


69 


tional authority of the President; the houses of suspected 
citizens were searched, and they themselves arrested by mili¬ 
tary force, in jurisdictions where the Federal courts were in 
uninterrupted operation; blank warrants were issued for domi¬ 
ciliary visits; and the sanctity of private correspondence was 
violated by seizing the dispatches preserved for years in the 
telegraph offices of the North, and making them the subject of 
inquisition for the purpose of discovering and punishing as 
traitors men who had dared to reproach the Northern govern¬ 
ment for an unnatural war, or had not sympathized with its 
rancor and excesses. 

Such was the inauguration of “ the strong government” of 
Abraham Lincoln in Maryland, and the repetition of its acts 
was threatened upon the “ rebel” States of the South, with the 
addition that their cities were to he laid in ashes, their soil 
sown with blood, the slaves freed and carried in battalions 
against their masters, and “ the rebels” doomed, after their 
subjection, to return home to find their wives and children in 
rags, and gaunt Famine sitting at their firesides. 


70 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


CHAPTER III. 

Confidence of the North,—Characteristic Boasts.—“ Crushing out the Rebellion.”— 
Volunteering in the Northern Cities.—The New York “ Invincibles.”— Misrepresenta¬ 
tions of the Government at Washington.—Mr. Seward’s Letter to the French Govern¬ 
ment.—Another Call for Federal Volunteers.—Opening Movements of the Campaign.— 
The Federal Occupation of Alexandria,—Death of Col. Ellsworth.—Fortress Monroe.— 
The Battle of Bethel. —Results of this Battle.—Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The Upper 
Potomac.—Evacuation and Destruction of Harper’s Ferry.— the Movements in the 
Upper Portion of the Valley of Virginia.—Northwestern Virginia.—The Battle of 
Rich Mountain.— Carrock’s Ford.—The Retreat of the Confederates.—General Mc¬ 
Clellan.—Meeting of the Federal Congress.—Mr. Lincoln’s Message.—Kentucky.— 
Western Virginia.—Large Requisitions for Men and Money by the Federal Govern¬ 
ment.—Its Financial Condition.—Financial Measures of the Southern Confederacy. 
Contrast between the Ideas of the Rival Governments.—Conservatism of the Southern 
Revolution.—Despotic Excesses of the Government at Washington. 


Nothing could exceed the boastful and unlimited expressions 
of confidence on the part of the Northern people, in the speedy 
“ crushing out of the rebellion,” and of contempt for the means 
and resources of the South to carry on any thing like a formid¬ 
able war. In the light of subsequent events, these expressions 
and vaunts give a grotesque illustration of the ideas with which 
the Northern people entered upon the war. 

The New York people derided the rebellion. The Tribune 
declared that it was nothing “ more or less than the natural 
recourse of all mean-spirited and defeated tyrannies to rule or 
ruin, making, of course, a wide distinction between the will 
and power, for the hanging of traitors- is sure to begin before 
one month is over.” “ The nations of Europe,” it continued, 
“may rest assured that Jeff. Davis & Co. will be swinging 
from the battlements at Washington, at least, by the 4tli of 
July. We spit upon a later and longer deferred justice.” 

The New York Times gave its opinion in the following 
vigorous and confident spirit: “ Let us make quick work. 
The ‘ rebellion,’ as some people designate it, is an unborn tad¬ 
pole. Let us not fall into the delusion, noted by Hallam, of 
mistaking a ‘local commotion’ for a revolution. A strong 
active ‘pull together’will do our work effectually in thirty 
days. We have only to send a column of 25,000 men across 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


71 


tlie Potomac to Richmond, and burn out the rats there; another 
column of 25,000 to Cairo, seizing the cotton ports of the Mis¬ 
sissippi ; and retaining the remaining 25,000, included in Mr. 
Lincoln’s call for 75,000 men, at Washington, not because there 
is need for them there, but because we do not require theii 
services elsewhere.” 

The Philadelphia Press declared that “no man of sense 
could, for a moment, doubt that this much-ado-about-notliing 
would end in a month.” The Northern people were “simply 
invincible.” “ The rebels,” it prophesied, “ a mere band of 
ragamuffins, will fly, like chaff before the wind, on our ap¬ 
proach.” 

The West was as violent as the North or the East. In the 
States of Iowa and Wisconsin, among the infidel Dutch, no 
rein was drawn upon the wild fanaticism. In Illinois, too, 
there was a fever of morbid violence. The Chicago Tribune 
insisted on its demand that the West be allowed to fight the 
battle through, since she was probably the most interested in 
the suppression of the rebellion and the free navigation of the 
Mississippi. “Let the East,” demanded this valorous sheet, 
“ get out of the way; this is a war of the West. We can fight 
the battle, and successfully, within two or three months at the 
furthest. Illinois can whip the South by herself. We insist 
on the matter being turned over to us.” 

The Cincinnati Commercial , in commenting upon the claims 
of the West, remarked that “the West ought to be made the 
vanguard of the war”—and proceeded: “We are akin, by 
trade and geography, with Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, 
and in sentiment to the noble Union patriots who have a ma¬ 
jority of three to one in all these States. An Ohio army would 
be received with joy in Nashville, and welcomed in a speech 
of congratulation by Andrew Johnson. Crittenden and Frank 
Blair are keeping Kentucky and Missouri all right. The re¬ 
bellion will be crushed out before the assemblage of Congress 
—no doubt of it.” 

Not a paper of influence in the North, at that time, 
had the remotest idea of the conflict; not a journalist who 
rose to the emergencies of the occasion—all was passion, rant, 
and bombast. 

In the Northern cities, going to the war for “ three months,” 


72 


tBIE first year of the war. 


the term of the enlistment of volunteers, was looked upon 
almost as a holiday recreation. In New York and Philadel¬ 
phia, the recruiting offices were besieged by firemen, rowdies, 
and men fished from the purlieus of vice, and every sink of 
degradation. There appeared to be no serious realization of 
the war. If a man ventured the opinion that a hundred 
thousand Southern troops might be gathered in Virginia, he 
was laughed at, or answered with stories about the Adirondack 
sharpshooters and the New York “roughs.” The newspapers 
declared that the most terrible and invincible army that ever 
enacted deeds of war might be gathered from the “ roughs” 
of the Northern cities. Nothing could compete with their 
desperate courage, and nothing could withstand their furious 
onslaught. A regiment of firemen and congenial spirits was 
raised in New York, and put under command of Colonel Ells¬ 
worth, of Chicago, a youth, who had some time ago exhibited 
through the country a company of young men drilled in the 
manual and exercises of the French Zouaves, who had made 
himself a favorite with the ladies at the Astor House and 
Willard’s Hotel, by his long hair, gymnastic grace, and red 
uniform, and who boasted of a great deal of political influence 
as the pet and protege of President Lincoln. To the standard 
of this young man, and also to that of a notorious bully and 
marauder, by the name of Billy Wilson, flocked all the vagrant 
and unruly classes of the great and vicious metropolis of New 
York. The latter boasted, that when his regiment was moved 
off, it would be found that not a thief, highwayman, or pick¬ 
pocket would be left in the city. The people of New York 
and Washington were strangely enraptured with the spectacle 
of these terrible and ruthless crusaders, who were to strike 
terror to the hearts of the Southern people. Anecdotes of 
their rude and desperate disposition, their brutal speeches and 
their exploits of rowdyism, were told with glee and devoured 
with unnatural satisfaction. In Washington, people were de¬ 
lighted by anecdotes that Ellsworth’s Zouaves made a practice 
of knocking their officers down; that their usual address to the 
sentinels was, “ Say, fellow, I am agoin’ to leave this ranch 
that on rainy days they seized umbrellas from citizens on the 
streets, and knocked them in the gutter if they remonstrated; 
that, “ in the most entire good humor,” they levied contribu- 


i 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE AVAR. 73 

tions of boots, shoes, liquors, and cigars on tradesmen; and 
that the “ gallant little colonel,” who controlled these unruly 
spirits, habitually wore a bowie knife two feet long. These 
freaks and eccentricities were not only excusable, they Avere 
admirable: the untamed courage of the New York firemen 
and rowdies, said the people, were to be so useful and con¬ 
spicuous in the war; and the prophecy was, that these men, 
so troublesome and belligerent towards quiet citizens who came 
in contact with them, would be the first to win honorable 
laurels on the field of combat. 

“ Billy Wilson’s” regiment was held up for a long time in 
New York as an inimitable scarecrow to the South. The 
regiment was displayed on every occasion; it was frequently 
marched up Broadway to pay visits to the principal hotels. 
On one of these occasions, it was related that Billy Wilson 
marched the companies into the hall and spacious bar-room of 
the hotel, and issued the order “ Attention.” Attention was 
paid, and the bystanders preserved silence. “Kneel down,” 
shouted the colonel. The men dropped upon their knees. 

“ You do solemnly swear to cut off the head of every d-d 

Secessionist you meet during the war.” “ We swear,” was the 
universal response. “The gallant souls,” said a NeAv York 
paper, “ then returned in good order to their quarters.” 

The newspaper extracts and incidents given above afford 
no little illustration of the spirit in which the North entered 
upon the war, and, in this connection, belong to the faithful 
history of the times. That spirit was not only trivial and 
utterly beneath the dignity of the contest upon which the 
North was to enter; it betrayed a fierceness and venom, the 
monstrous developments of which were reserved for a period 
later in the progress of events. 

What was partly ignorance and partly affectation on the 
part of the Northern press and people, in their light estima¬ 
tion of the Avar, was wholly affectation on the part of the in¬ 
telligent and better informed authorities at Washington. The 
government had a particular object in essaying to represent 
the Southern revolution as nothing more than a local mutiny. 
The necessity Avas plain for balking any thing like a European 
recognition of the Southern Confederacy, and Mr. Seward Avas 
prompt to rank the rebellion as a local and disorganized insur- 


n 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


rection, amounting to nothing more than a passing and inci¬ 
dental “change” in the history of the Union. At the time 
that all the resources of the government were put out to en¬ 
counter the gathering armies of the South, already within a 
few miles of the capital, Mr. Seward, in a letter of instructions 
to Mr. Dayton, the recently appointed minister to France, 
dated the 4th of May, urged him to assure that government 
of the fact that an idea of a permanent disruption of the 
Union was absurd; that the continuance of the Union was 
certain, and that too as an object of u affection /” He wrote: 
“The thought of a dissolution of this Union, peaceably or by 
force, has never entered into the mind of any candid states¬ 
man here, and it is high time that it be dismissed by the 
statesmen in Europe.” 

The government at Washington evidently showed, by its 
preparations, that it was secretly conscious of the resources 
and determined purposes of the revolution. Another procla¬ 
mation for still further increasing his military forces had been 
made by Mr. Lincoln on the third of May. He called for forty- 
odd thousand additional volunteers to enlist for the war, and 
eighteen thousand seamen, besides increasing the regular army 
by the addition of ten regiments. It is curious that these im¬ 
mense preparations should have attracted such little notice 
from the Northern public. The people and soldiers appeared 
to be alike hilarious and confident in the prospect of a “ short, 
sharp, and decisive” war, that was to restore the Union, open 
the doors of the treasury, give promotion and fame to those 
desirous of gain in those particulars, and afford new opportu¬ 
nities to adventurers of all classes. 

The first and opening movements of the Northern campaign 
were decided to be a forward movement from the Potomac 
along the Orange and Alexandria and Central roads towards 
Kichmond, while another invading army might be thrown into 
the Valley of Virginia from Pennsylvania and Maryland. 

The first step of the invasion of Virginia was the occupa¬ 
tion of Alexandria, which was accomplished on the 24th of 
May, by throwing some eight thousand Federal troops across 
the Potomac, the Virginia forces evacuating the town and fall¬ 
ing back to the Manassas Junction, where General Bonham, of 
South Carolina, was in command of the Confederate forces. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


75 


The invasion was accomplished under cover of the night,, and 
with such secrecy and dispatch, that a number of Virginia 
cavalry troops were found, unconscious of danger, at their 
quarters, and were taken prisoners. 

The Federal occupation of the town was attended by a dra 
matic incident, the heroism and chivalry of which gave a 
remarkable lesson to the invader of the spirit that was to 
oppose his progress on the soil of Virginia. In the gray of 
the morning, Col. Ellsworth, who, with his Fire Zouaves, had 
entered the town, observed a Confederate flag floating from 
the top of an hotel called the Marshall House, and attended by 
a squad of his men, determined to secure it as his prize. He 
found his way into the hotel, ascended the stairs, and climbed, 
by a ladder, to the top of the house, where he secured the 
obnoxious ensign. As he was descending from the trap-door, 
with the flag on his arm, he was confronted by Mr. Jackson, 
the proprietor of the hotel, who, aroused from his bed by the 
unusual noise, half dressed and in his shirt-sleeves, with a 
double-barrel gun in his hands, faced Ellsworth and his four 
companions with a quiet and settled determination. “ This is 
my trophy,” said the Federal commander, pointing to the flag. 
“ And you are mine,” responded the Virginian, as, with a quick 
aim he discharged his gun full into the breast of Colonel 
Ellsworth, and the next instant sank by his side a breathless 
corpse, from a bullet, sped through the brain, and a bayonet- 
thrust at the hands of one of the soldiers. 

The slayer of Colonel Ellsworth was branded, in the Horth, 
as an “ assassin.” The justice of history does not permit such 
a term to be applied to a man who defended his country’s flag 
and the integrity of his home with his life, distinctly and fear¬ 
lessly offered up to such objects of honor: it gives him the 
name which the Southern people hastened to bestow upon the 
memory of the heroic Jackson—that of “ martyr.” The char¬ 
acter of this man is said to have been full of traits of rude, 
native chivalry. He was captain of an artillery company in 
his town. He was known to his neighbors as a person who 
united a dauntless and unyielding courage with the most gen¬ 
erous impulses. A week before his death a “ Union” man 
from Washington had been seized in the streets of Alexandria, 
and a crowd threatened to shoot or hang him, when Jackson 


76 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


went to liis rescue, threatened to kill any man who would 
molest him, and saved him from the vengeance of the mob. 
A day before the Federal occupation of the town, in a conver¬ 
sation in which some such movement was conjectured, his 
.neighbors remonstrated with him about the danger of making 
liis house a sign for the enemy’s attack, by the flag which 
floated over it. He replied that he would sacrifice his life in 
ikeeping the flag flying—and by daybreak the next day the 
oath was fulfilled. He laid down his life, not in the excite¬ 
ment of passion, but coolly and deliberately, upon a principle, 
: and as an example in defending the sacred rights of his home 
and the flag of his country. This noble act of heroism did not 
fail to move the hearts of the generous people of the South ; a 
monument was proposed to the memory of the only hero of 
Alexandria; the dramatic story, and the patriotic example of 
M the martyr Jackson,” were not lost sight of in the stormy 
-excitements of the war that swept out of the mind so many 
incidents of its early history ; and in most of the cities of the 
South practical evidences of regard were given in large, vol¬ 
untary subscriptions to his bereaved family. 

The Federal forces were not met in Alexandria with any of 
those demonstrations of “ Union” sentiment which they had 
been induced, by the misrepresentations of the Northern press, 
to expect would hail the vanguard of their invasion of the 
South. The shouts and yells of the invaders fell upon the ears 
of a sullen people, who shut themselves up in their houses, as 
much to avoid the grating exultations of their enemies as con¬ 
tact with the rowdyism and riot that had taken possession of 
the streets. On coming into the town, the New York troops, 
particularly the Fire Zouaves, ran all over the city with their 
usual cry of “Hi,” “Hi.” Citizens closed their doors, and 
as the news of the tragedy at the Marshall House spread over 
the town, it assumed an aspect like that of the Sabbath. 
About the wharves and warehouses, where hitherto the life and 
excitement of the town had been concentrated, the silence was 
absolutely oppressive; and the only people to be seen were 
numbers of negroes, who stood about the wharves and on the 
street corners with frightened faces, talking in low tones to 
each other. 

■With Alexandria and Fortress Monroe in its possession, the 


TIIE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


77 


Federal Government held the most important passages into 
Virginia. General McDowell was charged with the command 
of the division of the forces thrown across the Potomac. Gen¬ 
eral Butler was placed in command at Fortress Monroe. The 
town of Hampton was occupied by the Federal troops, and 
Newport News, at the mouth of the James River, invested by 
them. At Sewell’s Point, some eight or ten miles distant on 
the other side, the Confederates had erected a powerful battery, 
which had proved its efficiency and strength by resisting an 
attack made upon it on the 19th of May, and continued for 
two days, by the Federal steamer Monticello, aided by the 
Minnesota. 

The first serious contest of the war was to occur in the low 
country of Virginia. On the 10th of June the battle of 
Bethel was fought. 


THE BATTLE OF BETHEL. 

The Confederates, to the number of about eighteen hundred, 
und i: Colonel J. Bankhead Magruder, were intrenched at 
Great Bethel church, which was about nine miles on the road 
leading south from Hampton. A Federal force exceeding four 
thousand men, under General Pierce—a Massachusetts officer 
w T ho was never afterwards heard of in the war—was moved 
towards Bethel in two separate bodies, a portion landing on the 
extreme side of the creek, some distance below, while the rest 
proceeded across the creek. The landing of the latter was 
effected without opposition, and presently the Federal troops, 
who had marched up from below, closed in on the Confederates 
almost simultaneously with those attacking their front. 

The attack was received by a battery of the Pichmond 
Howitzers, under command of Major Randolph; the action 
being commenced by a shot from the Parrott gun in our main 
battery aimed by himself. One of the guns of the battery 
being spiked by the breaking of a priming wire in the vent, 
the infantry supports were withdrawn, and the work was occu¬ 
pied for a moment by the enemy. Captain Bridges, of the 
1st North Carolina regiment, was ordered to retake it. The 
charge of the North Carolina infantry, on this occasion, was 
the most brilliant incident of the day. They advanced calmly 


78 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


and coolly in the face of a sheet of artillery fire, and when 
within sixty yards of the enemy dashed on at the double quick. 
The Federals fell back in dismay. 

The enemy continued to fire briskly, but wildly, with his ar¬ 
tillery. At no time, during the artillery engagement, could 
the Confederates see the bodies of the men in the column ol 
attaek, and their fire was directed by the bayonets of the en¬ 
emy. The position of the enemy was obscured by the shade 
of the woods on their right and two small houses on their left. 
The fire of the Confederates was returned by a battery near 
the head of the enemy’s column, but concealed by the woods 
and the houses so effectually that the Confederates only ascer¬ 
tained its position by the flash of the pieces. 

The earthworks were struck several times by the shots of the 
Federals. They fired upon us with shot, shell, spherical case, 
canister, and grape, from six and twelve pounders, at a distance 
of six hundred yards. The only injury received from their 
artillery was the loss of a mule. The fire on our part was 
deliberate, and was suspended whenever masses of the enemy 
were not within range. From 9 o’clock a. m. until 1:30 p. m. 
but ninety-eight shot were fired by us, every one of them with 
deliberation. 

After some intermission of the assault in front, a heavy col¬ 
umn, apparently a reinforcement or a reserve, made its appear¬ 
ance on the Hampton road and pressed forward towards the 
bridge, carrying the United States flag at its head.' This col¬ 
umn was under command of Major Winthrop, aid to General 
Butler. Those in advance had put on the distinctive badge of 
the Confederates—a white band around the cap. They cried 
out repeatedly, “don’t fire.” Having crossed the creek, they 
began to cheer most lustily, thinking that our work was open 
. at the g° r ge? and that they might get in by a sudden rush. 
The North Carolina infantry, however, dispelled this illusion. 
Their firing was as cool as that of veterans ; the only difficulty 
being the anxiety of the riflemen to pick off the foe, the men 
repeatedly calling to their officers, “ May I fire? I think I can 
bring him.” L 

As the enemy fell back in disorder and his final rout com¬ 
menced, the bullet of a North Carolina rifleman pierced the 
breast of the brave Federal officer Major Winthrop, who had 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


79 

made himself a conspicuous mark by his gallantry on the field. 
u He was,” says Colonel Hill, of the North Carolina regiment, 
in his official report of the action, “ the only one of the enemy 
who exhibited even an approximation to courage during the 
whole day.” The fact was, that he had fallen in circumstances 
of great gallantry. He was shot while standing on a log, 
waving his sword and vainly attempting to rally his men to 
the charge. His enemy did honor to his memory; and the 
Southern people, who had been unable to appreciate the cour¬ 
age of Ellsworth, and turned with disgust from his apotheosis 
in the North, did not fail to pay the tribute due a truly brave 
man to the gallant Winthrop, who, having simply died on the 
battle-field, without the sensational circumstances of a private 
brawl or a bully’s adventure, was soon forgotten in the North. 

During the fight at the angle of our works, a small wooden 
house in front was thought to give protection to the enemy. 
Four privates in the North Carolina regiment volunteered to 
advance beyond our lines and set it on fire. One of them, a 
youth named Henry L. Wyatt, advanced ahead of his compan¬ 
ions, and, as he passed between the two fires, he fell pierced 
by a musket-ball in the forehead, within thirty yards of the 
house. This was our only loss in killed during the entire en¬ 
gagement. 

The results of the battle of Bethel were generally magnified 
in the South. It is true that a Confederate force of some 
eighteen hundred men, in a contest of several hours with an 
enemy more than twice their numbers, had repulsed them ; 
that the entire loss of the former was only one man killed and 
seven wounded, while that of the enemy, by their own ac¬ 
knowledgment, was thirty killed and more than one hundred 
wounded. The fact, however, was, that our troops had fought 
under the impenetrable cover of their batteries, the only in¬ 
stance of exposure being that of the North Carolina infantry, 
who, by their charge on the redoubt taken by the enemy early 
in the action, contributed, most of all, to the success and glory 
of the day. The battle had been the result of scarcely any 
thing more than a reconnoissance; it was by no means to be 
ranked 4 as a decisive engagement, and yet it was certainly a 
serious and well-timed check to the foe. 

In one respect, however, the result was not magnified, and 


80 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


/ 


that was in its contribution of confidence and ardor ro the 
South. Thus regarded, it was an important event, and its 
effects of the happiest kind. The victory was achieved at a 
time when the public mind was distressed and anxious on ac¬ 
count of the constant backward movements of our forces in 
Virginia, and the oft-recurring story of “ surprise” and con¬ 
sequent disaster to our troops in the neighborhood of the en¬ 
emy’s lines. The surrender of Alexandria, the surprise and 
dispersion of a camp at Philippi by a body of Federal troops,* 

* The disaster at Philippi was inconsiderable; but it was the subject of 
some recrimination at the time, and Colonel Porterfield, the Confederate com¬ 
mander, was subjected to a court-martial, which, in the main, exonerated him, 
and complimented him for his courage. Colonel Porterfield had been ordered 
to Grafton about the middle of May, 1861, with written instructions from 
General Lee to call for volunteers from that part of the State, and receive 
them into the service, to the number of five thousand; and to co-operate with 
the agents of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad; and with verbal orders to try 
to conciliate the people of that section, and to do nothing to offend them. 
Finding, soon after his arrival, that the country was in a state of revolution, 
ujid that there was a large and increasing Federal force at Camp Denison, in 
Ohio, opposite Parkersburg, and another in the vicinity of Wheeling, Colonel 
Porterfield wrote to the commanding general, that unless a strong force was 
sent very soon, Northwestern Virginia would be overrun. 

Upon directing the captains of organized volunteer companies to proceed 
with their companies to Grafton, they replied that not more than twenty in 
companies numbering sixty were willing to take up arms on the side of the 
State; that the others declared, if they were compelled to fight, it would be 
in defence of the Union. Colonel Porterfield succeeded in a w«%*k in getting 
together three newly-organized companies. This force was increased by the 
arrival of several other companies, two of which were unarmed cavalry com¬ 
panies—amounting in all to about 500 infantry and 150 cavalry. These 
troops had been at Grafton but a few days, when, or about the 25th of May, 
Colonel Porterfield was reliably informed of the force of the enemy and with¬ 
drew his command to Philippi. Orders were given for the destruction of the 
Cheat bridge, but were not executed. The enemy’s force at Grafton was 
about eight thousand men. On the 3d of June, through the failure of the 
guard or infantry pickets to give the alarm, the command at Philippi was 
surprised by about five thousand infantry and a battery of artillery, and dis¬ 
persed in great confusion, but with inconsiderable loss of life, through the 
woods. The command had no equipments and very little ammunition. Such 
was the inauguration of the improvident and unfortunate campaign in West¬ 
ern Virginia. 

General Garnett succeeded Colonel Porterfield in the command in North¬ 
western Virginia, with a much larger force (about six thousand men), but 
one obviously inadequate, considering the extent of the district it was ex¬ 
pected to defend, the hostile character of the country, and the invading forces 
of the enemy. 




THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


81 


and the apparently uncertain movements of our forces on the 
Upper Potomac, had unpleasantly exercised the popular mind, 
and had given rise to many rash and ignorant doubts with re¬ 
spect to the opening events of the war. The battle of Bethel 
was the first to turn the hateful current of retreat, and sent 
the first gleam of sunlight through the sombre shadows that 
had hung over public opinion in the South. 

It is certain that the movements on the Upper Potomac were 
greatly misunderstood at the time, especially with regard to 
the evacuation of Harper’s Ferry. General Joseph E. John¬ 
ston, who had been a quartermaster-general in the old United 
States service, and had resigned to take part in the defence of 
his native State, Virginia, had assumed command at Harper’s 
Ferry, on the 23d of May. On the 27th of the same month, 
General Beauregard had relinquished his command at Charles¬ 
ton, being assigned to duty*at Corinth, Mississippi; but, the 
order being recalled, he was put in command at Manassas, our 
forces being divided into what was known as the armies of the 
Potomac and of the Shenandoah. At the time General John¬ 
ston took command at Harper’s Ferry, the forces at that point 
consisted of nine regiments and two battalions of infantry, 
with four companies of artillery—a force which was certainly 
not sufficient, when we consider that it was expected to hold 
both sides of the Potomac, and take the field against an inva¬ 
ding army. After a complete reconnoissance of the place and 
environs, General Johnston decided that it was untenable, but 
determined to hold it until the great objects of the govern¬ 
ment required its abandonment. 

The demonstrations of the Federal forces in the direction of 
the Valley of Virginia were certainly thwarted by the timely 
falling back of our army from Harper’s Ferry to Winchester. 
General Patterson’s approach was expected by the great route 
into the Valley from Pennsylvania and Maryland, leading 
through Winchester, and it was an object of the utmost im¬ 
portance to prevent any junction between his forces and those 
of General McClellan, who was already making his way into 
the upper portions of the Valley. On the morning of the 13th 
of June, information was received from Winchester that Kom- 
ney was occupied by two thousand Federal troops, supposed 
to be the vanguard of McClellan’s army. A detachment was 


82 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


dispatched by railway to check the advance of the enemy; 
and on the morning of the 15th, the Confederate army left 
Harper’s Ferry for Winchester. 

The pext morning, after the orders were issued for the evac¬ 
uation of Harper’s Ferry, brought one of those wild, fearful 
scenes which make the desolation that grows out of war. The 
splendid railroad bridge across the Potomac—one of the most 
superb structures of its kind on the continent—was set on fire 
at its northern end, while about four hundred feet at its south¬ 
ern extremity was blown up, to prevent the flames from reach¬ 
ing other works which it was necessary to save. Many of the 
vast buildings were consigned to the flames. Some of them 
were not only large, but very lofty, and crowned with tall tow¬ 
ers and spires, and we may be able to fancy the sublimity of 
the scene, when more than a dozen of these huge fabrics, 
crowded into a small space, were, blazing at once. So great 
was the heat and smoke, that many of the troops were forced 
out of the town, and the necessary labors of the removal were 
performed with the greatest difficulty. 

On the morning of the day after the evacuation of Harper’s 
Ferry, intelligence was received that General Patterson’s army 
had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport; also that the Fed¬ 
eral force at Romney had fallen back. The Confederate army 
was ordered to gain the Martinsburg turnpike by a flank 
movement to Bunker’s Hill, in order to place itself between 
Winchester and the expected advance of Patterson. On 
hearing of this, the enemy crossed the river precipitately. 
Resuming his first direction and plan, General Johnston pro¬ 
ceeded to Winchester. There his army was in position to op¬ 
pose either McClellan from the West, or Patterson from the 
North-east, and to form a junction with General Beauregard 
when necessary. 

Intelligence from Maryland indicating another movement 
by Patterson, Colonel Jackson with his brigade was sent to 
the neighborhood of Martinsburg to support Colonel Stuart, 
who had been placed in observation on the line of the Potomac 
with his cavalry. On the 2d of July, General Patterson again 
crossed the Potomac. Colonel Jackson, pursuant to instruc¬ 
tions, again fell back before him; but, in retiring, gave him a 
severe lesson. With a battalion of the Fifth Virginia Regi- 



THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


83 


ment and Pendleton’s Battery of Field Artillery, lie engaged 
the enemy’s advance. Skilfully taking a position where the 
smallness of his force was concealed, he engaged them for a 
considerable time, inflicted a heavy loss, and retired when 
about to he outflanked, scarcely losing a man, but bringing off 
forty-five prisoners. 

IJpon this intelligence, the force at Winchester, strengthened 
by the arrival of General Bee and Colonel Elzey and the JSTinth 
Georgia regiment, were ordered forward to the support of 
Jackson, who, it was supposed, was closely followed by Gen¬ 
eral Patterson. Taking up a position within six miles from 
Martinsburg, which town the enemy had invested, General 
Johnston waited for him four days, hoping to be attacked by 
an adversary double his number. Convinced at length that 
the enemy would not approach him, General Johnston returned 
to Winchester, much to the disappointment of his troops, who, 
sullen and discontented, withdrew in the face of the enemy. 

On the 15th of July, Colonel Stuart, who, with his cavalry, 
remained near the enemy, reported the advance of General Pat¬ 
terson from Martinsburg. He halted, however, at Bunker’s 
Hill, nine miles from Winchester, where he remained on the 
16th. On the 17th, he moved his left to Smithfield. This 
movement created the impression that an attack was intended 
on the south of the Confederate lines; but, with a clear and 
quick intelligence, General Johnston had penetrated the de¬ 
signs of the enemy, which were to hold him in check, while 
“ the Grand Army” under McDowell was to bear down upon 
General Beauregard at Manassas. 

In the mean time, General McClellan’s army had moved 
southwestward from Grafton. In the progress of the history 
of the war, we shall meet with frequent repetitions of the lesson 
of how the improvident spirit of the South, in placing small 
forces in isolated localities, was taken advantage of by the quick 
strategic movements and the overwhelming numbers of the 
North. The first of the series of these characteristic disasters 
was now to befall the South. 


84 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


THE BATTLE OF RICH MOUNTAIN. 

The lliain column of Federal troops under General McClellan 
was estimated to be twenty thousand strong; his movements 
were now directed towards Beverley, with the object of getting 
to the rear of General Garnett, who had been appointed to the 
command of the Confederate forces in Northwestern Virginia, 
and was occupying a strong position at Rich Mountain, in 
Randolph county. 

The strength of General Garnett’s command was less than 
five thousand infantry, with ten pieces of artillery, and four 
companies of cavalry. The disposition of these forces was in 
the immediate vicinity of Rich Mountain. Col. Pegram occu¬ 
pied the mountain with a force of about sixteen hundred men 
and some pieces of artillery. On the slopes of Laurel Hill, 
General Garnett was intrenched with a force of three thousand 
infantry, six pieces of artillery and three companies of cavalry. 

On the 5th of July, the enemy took a position at Bealington, 
in front of Laurel Hill, and a day or two afterwards a large 
force appeared in front of Rich Mountain. 

On the morning of the 11th instant, General Garnett re¬ 
ceived a note from Colonel Pegram at Rich Mountain, stating 
that his pickets had.that morning taken a prisoner, who stated 
that there were in front of Rich Mountain nine regiments of 
seven thousand men and a number of pieces of artillery; that 
General McClellan had arrived in camp the evening before, 
and had given orders for an attack the next day; that General 
Rosecrans had started a night before with a division of the 
army three thousand strong, by a convenient route, to take 
him in the rear, while McClellan was to attack in front; that 
he had moved a piece of artillery and three hundred men to the 
point by which General Rosecrans was expected, and that he 
had requested Colonel Scott, with his regiment, to occupy a 
position on the path by which the enemy must come. As soon 
as General Garnett received this note, he sent a written order 
to Colonel Scott to move to the point indicated by Colonel 
Pegram, and to defend it at all hazards. 

The attack on Colonel Pegram was met with the most gal¬ 
lant resistance. The fight lasted nearly three hours. The enemy 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


85 


advanced by a pathless route through the woods, the whole 
division moving in perfect silence through the brush, laurel, 
and rocks, while the rain poured down upon them in torrents. 
The expectation however of surprising the little force on the 
mountain was disappointed. As the enemy advanced, our artil¬ 
lery, posted on the top of the mountain, opened upon them, 
but with little effect, as their lines were concealed by the trees 
and brushwood. The earth of the mountain seemed to tremble 
under the thunders of the cannon. The tops of immense trees 
were cut off by our fire, which was aimed too high; the crash 
of the falling timber mingled with the roar of the cannon, and 
as our artillery again and again belched forth its missives of 
destruction, it seemed as if the forest was riven by living 
streams of lightning. While the cannonading progressed, an 
incessant fire of musketry was kept up in the woods, where the 
sharpshooters, wet to the skin in the rain, kept the advancing 
lines of the enemy at bay. For more than two hours the little 
army of Colonel Pegram maintained its ground. Its situation, 
however, was hopeless. Finding himself with three thousand 
of the enemy in his rear and five thousand in front, Colonel 
Pegram endeavored to escape with his command, after a small 
loss in the action. One part of the command, under Major 
Tyler, succeeded in escaping; the other, about five hundred in 
number, were compelled to surrender, when it was found that 
General Garnett had evacuated Laurel Hill. Among the pris¬ 
oners taken by the enemy was Colonel Pegram himself. Thrown 
from his horse, which was wounded and had become unman¬ 
ageable, he refused to surrender his sword to his captors, and 
a messenger had to ride six miles to find an officer to receive it 
from the hands of the ill-starred commander. 

When Gen. Garnett heard of the result of the engagement 
at Eich Mountain, he determined to evacuate Laurel Hill as 
soon as night set in and retire to Huttonsville by the way of 
Beverley. This design was baffled, as Col. Scott with his regi¬ 
ment had retreated beyond Beverley towards Huttons rille, 
without having blocked the road between Eich Mountain and 
Beverley.* General Garnett was compelled by this untoward 


* It is proper to state, that there was some controversy as to the precise 
orders given to Colonel Scott. That officer published a card in the newspapers 





86 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


circumstance, and by the mistaken execution of another order 
by which the road was blocked from Beverley towards Laurel 
Hill, instead of that between the former place and Rich Moun¬ 
tain, to retreat by a mountain road into Hardy county. 

The retreat was conducted in good order, amid distresses and 
trials of the most extraordinary description. The road was 
barely wide enough for a single wagon. In the morning, the 
army arrffeci at a camp on the Little Cheat, and after resting 
on the grass in the rain a few hours, took up their dreary line 
of march through the forest. On the morning of the second 
day of the retreat, soon after leaving the camp on the branch 
of the Cheat River, the pursuing enemy fell upon the rear of 
the distressed little army, and skirmishing continued during 
the day. Four companies of the Georgia regiment were cut off. 

At one of the fords, a sharp conflict ensued, in which the 
enemy were held at bay for a considerable time. 

This action, known as that of Carrock’s Ford, more than 
retrieved the disasters of the defeat. It was a deep ford, 
rendered deeper than usual by the rains, and here some of the 
wagons became stalled in the river and had to be abandoned. 

The enemy were now close upon the rear, which consisted of 
the 23d Virginia regiment, and the artillery; and as soon as 
the command had crossed, Colonel Taliaferro commanding the 
23d was ordered to occupy the high bank on the right of the 
ford with his regiment and artillery. On the right, this posi¬ 
tion was protected by a fence; on the left, only by low bushes; 
but the hill commanded the ford and the approach to it by the 
road, and was admirably selected for a defence. In a few 
minutes, the skirmishers of the enemy were seen running along 
the opposite bank, which was low and skirted by a few trees, 
and were at first taken for the Georgians, who were known to 
have been cut off, but our men were soon undeceived, and with 
a simultaneous cheer for “ Jeff. Davis” by the whole command, 
they opened upon the enemy. 

The enemy replied with a heavy fire from their infantry and 
artillery. A large force was brought to the attack, but the 


at, the time, relieving himself from censure and showing that he occupied on 
the day of the battle the position to which he was peremptorily ordered by 
General Garnett at the instance of Colonel Pegram. 





THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


87 


continued and well-directed fire of the Confederates kept them 
from crossing the river, and twice the enemy was driven back 
some distance from the ford. They again, however, came up 
with a heavy force and renewed the fight. The fire of their 
•artillery was entirely ineffective, although their shot and shell 
were thrown very rapidly, hut they all flew over the heads of 
the Confederate troops, without any damage except bringing 
the limbs of the trees down upon them. 

After continuing the fight until nearly every cartridge had 
been expended, and until the artillery had been withdrawn by 
General Garnett’s orders, and as no part of his command was 
within sight or supporting distance, as far as could be discov¬ 
ered, or, as was afterwards ascertained, within four miles of 
the ford, Col. Taliaferro, after having sustained a loss of 
about thirty killed and wounded, ordered the regiment to retire 
—the officers and men manifesting decided reluctance at being 
withdrawn. 

The loss to the enemy in this gallant little affair must have 
been quite considerable, as they had, from their own account, 
three regiments engaged. The people in the neighborhood re¬ 
ported a heavy loss, which they stated the enemy endeavored 
to conceal by transporting the dead and wounded to Bealington 
in covered wagons, permitting no one to approach them. 

At the second ford, about half-past one o’clock in the day, 
Gen. Garnett was killed by almost the last fire of the enemy. 
On reaching at this ford the opposite bank of the stream,. Gen. 
Garnett desired one company from the 23d Virginia regiment 
to be formed behind some high drift wood. He stated that he 
would in person take charge of them, and did so the company 
being the Richmond Sharpshooters, Capt. Tompkins. In a few 
minutes, Capt. Tompkins and all his men, but ten, came up to 
the regiment, stating that Gen. Garnett only wanted ten men. 
The inference was palpable—he had taken an extreme near 
position to the enemy. Very soon the firing commenced in the 
rear where Gen. Garnett was, and immediately the horse.of the 
general came galloping past without a rider. He fell just as 
he gave the order to the skirmishers to retire, and one of them 
was killed by his side. 

At the second ford, where Gen. Garnett was killed, the 
enemy abandoned the pursuit, and the command under Col. 


88 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


Ramsey reached Monterey and formed a junction with Gen. 
Jackson. 

The actual reverses of the retreat consisted of some thirty- 
odd killed and wounded, a number missing, many of whom 
afterwards reached the command, and the loss of its baggage, 
a portion of which was used in blocking the road against the 
enemy’s artillery. The conflict and the retreat, the hunger 
and fatigue of the men, many of whom dropped from the ranks 
from sheer exhaustion, were unequalled by any thing that had 
yet occurred in the war. Its success appeared as extraordinary 
as its hardships and privations. Surrounded by an army of 
twenty thousand men, without supplies, in a strange country, 
and in the midst of continuous and drenching rains, it was a 
wonder that the little army of three thousand men should have 
escaped annihilation. The command had marched sixty hours, 
resting only five hours, and had endured a march through the 
forest without food for men or horse,s. 

Gen. McClellan announced to the government at Washing¬ 
ton a signal victory. He summed up the results of the battle 
on the mountain and his pursuit of the retreating army as two 
hundred killed and wounded, a thousand taken prisoners, the 
baggage of the entire command captured, and seven guns 
taken. “ Our success,” he wrote to Washington, “is complete, 
and Secession is killed in this country.” 

The affair of Rich Mountain was certainly a serjous disaster; 
it involved the surrender of an important portion of North¬ 
western Virginia; but with respect to the courage and dis¬ 
cipline of our troops, it had exhibited all that could be desired, 
and the successful retreat was one of the most remarkable in 
history. It is certain that the unskilful disposition of our 
troops, as well as their inadequate numbers, had contributed 
to the success of the enemy, and doubts are admissible whether 
more advantage might not have been taken of the position at 
Carrock’s Ford, with proper supports, considering its extra¬ 
ordinary advantages of defence, and h6w long it had been 
held against the forces of the pursuing enemy by a single 
regiment. 

A feeling of deep sympathy, however, was felt for the unfor¬ 
tunate commander, whose courage, patriotic ardor, and gener¬ 
ous, because unnecessary, exposure of his person to the bullets 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


89 


of the enemy, commended his memory to the hearts of his 
countrymen. 

Whatever might have been the depression of the public 
mind of the South by the Rich Mountain disaster, it was more 
than recovered by news from other quarters. The same day 
that the unfavorable intelligence from Rich Mountain reached 
the government at Richmond, the telegraph brought, by a 
devious route, the news of the battle of Carthage in Missouri. 
The blow given to the enemy at this distant point, was the first 
of the brilliant exploits which afterwards made the Missouri 
campaign one of the most brilliant episodes of the war. It had 
gone far to retrieve the fortunes of an empire that was here¬ 
after to be added to the Southern Confederacy, and assure the 
promise that had been made in the proclamation of the gallant 
Gen. Price of that State—“ a million of such people as the 
citizens of Missouri were never yet subjugated, and, if at¬ 
tempted, let no apprehension be felt for the result.” But of 
this hereafter. 

On the anniversary of the Fourth of July, the Federal Con¬ 
gress met at Washington. Galusha A. Grow, a Pennsylvania 
Abolitionist, and an uncompromising advocate of the war, was 
elected Speaker of the House. The meeting of this Congress 
affords a suitable period for a statement of the posture of po¬ 
litical affairs, and of the spirit which animated the North, with 
respect to existing hostilities. 

In his message, Mr. Lincoln denounced the idea of any of 
the States preserving an armed neutrality in the war, having 
particular reference to the continued efforts of Governor Ma¬ 
goffin, of Kentucky, to maintain a condition of neutrality on 
the part of that State. Mr. Lincoln declared that if armed 
neutrality were permitted on the part of any of the States, it 
would soon ripen into disunion; that it would build impass¬ 
able walls along the line of separation ; and it would tie the 
hands of the Unionists, while it would free those of the Insur¬ 
rectionists, by taking all the trouble from Secession, except 
that which might be expected from the external blockade. 
Neutrality, he said, gave to malcontents disunion without its 
risks, and was not to be tolerated, since it recognized no fidelity 
to the Constitution or obligation to the Union. 

Kentucky was not unreasonably accounted a part of the 




90 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Northern government. But with an outrage of the plainest 
doctrines of the government, and a practical denial not only of 
every thing like the rights of States, but even of their territo¬ 
rial integrity, the Northwestern portion of Yirginia, which 
had rebelled against its State government, was taken into the 
membership of the Federal Union as itself a State, with the 
absurd and childish addition of giving to the rebellious counties 
the name of “Yirginia.” A Convention of the disaffected 
Northwestern counties of Yirginia had been held at Wheeling, 
on the 13th day of May, and after a session of three days, de¬ 
cided to call another Convention, to meet on the 11th of June, 
subsequent to the vote of the State on the Ordinance of Seces¬ 
sion. The Convention reorganized the counties as a member 
of the Federal Union : F. W. Pierpont was elected governor ; 
and W. T. Willie and the notorious John S. Carlile, both of 
whom had already signalized their treason to their State by 
their course in the Convention at Richmond, were sent as 
representatives of “ Yirginia” to the United States Senate, in 
which absurd capacity they were readily received. 

The message of the President gave indications of a deter¬ 
mined and increased prosecution of hostilities. It called for 
an army of four hundred thousand men, and a loan of four 
hundred millions of dollars. This call was a curious commen¬ 
tary upon the spirit and resources of the people, who it had 
been thought in the North would be crushed out by the three 
months’ levies before the Federal Congress met in July to de¬ 
cide upon what disposition should be made of the conquered 
States. 

The statements of Mr. Lincoln’s fiscal secretary were alarm¬ 
ing enough; they showed a state of the treasury unable even 
to meet the ordinary expenditures of the government, and its 
resources were now to be taxed to the last point of ingenuity 
to make for the next fiscal year the necessary q>rovision of four 
hundred and eighty millions of dollars, out of an actual revenue 
the first quarter of which had not exceeded five millions. The 
ordinary expenditures of the Federal government for the fiscal 
year ending June 30th, 1862, were estimated at eighty millions 
of dollars; the extraordinary expenditures, on the basis of in¬ 
creased military operations, at four hundred millions. To meet 
these large demands of the civil and war service, Secretary 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


91 


Chase confessed to a receipt of but five millions per quarter 
from the “Morrill” tariff, showing that at this rate of the 
receipt of customs, the income of the government would be 
twenty millions per year against nearly five hundred millions 
of prospective outlay. 

It was proposed in this financial exigency to levy specific 
duties of about thirty-three per cent, on coffee, tea, sugar, mo¬ 
lasses, and syrup, which might yield twenty millions a year; it 
was hoped by some modification of the Morrill tariff, with re¬ 
spect to other. articles, to increase its productiveness from 
twenty to thirty-seven millions; the revenue from the sale of 
public lands was estimated at three millions; and it was timidly 
proposed that a tax should be levied upon real property of 
one-third or one-fifth of one per cent., to produce twenty 
millions additional. Thus by means of— 


The Tariff,.$37,000,000 

Tea, Sugar, and Coffee,. 20,000,000 

Public Lands,. 3,000,000 

Direct Taxes,. 20,000,000 


Producing a total of.$80,000,000 


The Northern government proposed to eke out the means of 
meeting its ordinary expenses, leaving the monstrous balance 
of four hundred millions of dollars to be raised by a sale of 
bonds. 

The financial complications of the government of Mr. Lincoln 
were in striking contrast with the abundant and easy means 
which the Southern Confederacy had, at least so far, been able 
to carry on the war. The latter had been reduced to a paper 
currency, but it had for the basis of its currency the great 
staple of cotton,* which in the shape of a produce loan was 
practically pledged to the redemption of the public debt. 


* The whole cotton crop of America, in 1860, was 4,675,770 hales • and of 
this, 3,697,727 bales were exported, and 978,043 bales used at home. England 
alone took 2,582,000 bales, which amounted to about four-fifths of her entire 
consumption. The cotton-fields of the Southern States embrace an area of 
500,000 square miles, and the capital invested in the cultivation of the plant 
amounts to $900,000,000. Seventy years ago, the exports of our cotton were 
only 420 bales—not one-tentli of the amount furnished by several countries 
to England. Now, the South furnishes five-sevenths of the surplus cotton 
product of the entire world 









92 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Pr< sj. ects were entertained of a speedy raising of the blockade, 
the disappointment of which, at a later day, drove the Con¬ 
federacy to other expedients of revenue, in a war tax, &c.; but, 
at the time of the comparison of the financial condition of the 
two governments, the Confederate currency was accounted 
quite as good as gold, as the cotton and tobacco once in the 
market would afford the Southern government the instant 
means to discharge every cent of its indebtedness. 

The Federal Congress commenced its work in a spirit that 
essentially tended to revolutionize the political system and ideas 
of the North itself. It not only voted to Mr. Lincoln the men 
and supplies he asked for, but the first days of its session were 
signalized by a resolution to gag all propositions looking to¬ 
wards peace, or any thing else than a prosecution of the war; 
by another, to approve the acts done by the President without 
constitutional authority, including his suspension of the habeas 
corpus ; and by the introduction of a bill to confiscate the prop¬ 
erty of “ rebels.” 

The pages of history do not afford a commensurate instance 
of the wide opposition in the social and political directions of 
two nations who had so long lived in political union and inter¬ 
course as the North and the South. While the latter was daily 
becoming more conservative and more attached to existing in¬ 
stitutions,* the North was as rapidly growing discontented, 

* A type of tlie conservatism of the Soutlierif revolution—its attachment to 
the past—was vividly displayed in the adoption of its national ensign, a blue 
union with a circle of stars, and longitudinal bars, red, white, and red, in place 
of “ the stripes” of the flag of the old government. The present Confederate 
flag was balloted for in the Provisional Congress, and was selected by a ma¬ 
jority of votes out of four different models. At the time of the early session of 
Congress at Montgomery, the popular sentiment was almost unanimous, and 
very urgent, that the main features of the old Federal Constitution should be 
copied into the new government, and that to follow out and give expression to 
this idea, the flag should be as close a copy as possible of the Federal ensign. 
A resolution was introduced in the Provisional Congress to the effect that the 
flag should be as little different as possible from that of the Federal govern¬ 
ment ; which resolution was vigorously opposed by Mr. Miles, of South Caro¬ 
lina, who was then chairman of the Flag Committee. The design recommended 
by Mr. Miles, but voted down, has since been adopted as the battle flag of 
Generals Johnston and Beauregard. It is a blue saltier (or Maltese cross), 
with inner rows of stars, on a red field—the emblem of the saltier (saltere, to 
leap) being appropriately that of progress and power. The two other com¬ 
peting designs, from which our present flag was selected, were, one, an almost 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


93 


restless, radical, and revolutionary. The people of the North 
had passed the stage of pure Democracy, and inaugurated mili¬ 
tary despotism. They, in effect, had changed their form of 
government, while vainly attempting to preserve their territo¬ 
rial ascendency. They charged the South with attempting 
revolution, when it was only fighting for independence; while 
they, themselves, actually perpetrated revolution rather than 
forego the advantages of a partial and iniquitous Union. The 
South, in the midst of a war of independence—a war waged not 
to destroy, but to preserve existing institutions—was recurring 
to the past, and proposing to revive conservative ideas rather 
than to run into new and rash experiments. 

The war had already developed one great moral fact in the 
North of paramount interest. It was the entire willingness of 
the people to surrender their constitutional liberties to any 
government that would gratify their political passions. 

This peculiarity of the condition of Northern society, was 
more significant of its disintegration and revolutionary destiny 
than all the other circumstances and consequences of the war 
combined, in loss of trade, prostration of commerce, and poverty 
and hunger of the people. It was the corruption of the public 
virtue. The love of constitutional liberty was degraded to po¬ 
litical hatreds. While these were gratified, the Northern people 
were willing to surrender their liberties to their panderers at 
Washington. Without protest, without opposition, in silent 
submission, or even in expressions stimulating and encouraging 
the despot who stript them of their rights, to still further ex¬ 
cesses, they had seen every vestige of constitutional liberty 
swept away, while they imagined that their greed of resentment 
towards the South was to be satisfied to its fill. They had seen 
the liberties of the people strangled, even in States remaining 
in the Union. They had seen the writ of habeas corpus denied, 
not only by the minions of Abraham Lincoln in Maryland, but 
by the commanding officers of Forts Hamilton and Lafayette. 
They had seen, not only the rights of free speech, but the 
sanctity even of private correspondence, violated by the seizure 

exact reproduction of tlie Federal stars and stripes, tlie only variation being 
tbat of a blue stripe, and the other a simple blue circle or rim, on a red field. 
The consideration that determined the selection of the present flag was its 
similarity to that of the old government. 


» 



94 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


of dispatches in tlieir own telegraph offices. They had seen the 
law of the drum-head not only established in Baltimore, but 
measures to subvert their own municipal liberties inaugurated 
by a system of military police for the whole Federal Union. 
They had suffered without protestation these monstrous viola¬ 
tions of the Constitution under which they professed to live. 
They had not only suffered, but had indorsed them. They had 
not only done this, but they had applauded in this government 
of Abraham Lincoln violations of honor, morality, and truth, 
more infamous than excesses of authority. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


95 


CHAPTER IV. 


The “ Grand Army” of the North.—General McDowell.—The Atfair of Bull Run.— 
An Artillery Duel.— The Battle of Manassas .— 1 “ On to Richmond.”—Scenery of the 
Battle-field.—Crises in the Battle.—Devoted Courage of the Confederates.— The Rout. 
—How the News was received in Washington.—How it was received in the South.— 
General Bee.—Colonel Bartow.—The Great Error.—General Johnston’s Excuses for 
not advancing on Washington.— Incidents of the Manassas Battle. 

The month of July found confronting the lines of the Poto¬ 
mac two of the largest armies that this continent had ever 
seen. The confidence of the North in the numbers, spirit, and 
appointments of its u Grand Army” was insolent in the ex¬ 
treme. It was thought to he hut an easy undertaking for it to 
march to Richmond, and plant the Stars and Stripes in Capitol 
Square. An advance was urged not only hy the popular 
clamor of “ On to Richmond,” hut hy the pressure of extreme 
parties in Congress; and when it was fully resolved upon, the 
exhilaration was extreme, and the prospect of the occupation 
of Richmond in ten days was entertained-with every variety 
of public joy. 

Nothing had been left undone to complete the preparations 
of the Northern army. In numbers it was immense ; it was 
provided with the best artillery in the world; it comprised, 
besides its immense force of volunteers, all the regulars east 
of the Rocky Mountains, to the number of about ten thousand, 
collected since February, in the city of Washington, from Jef¬ 
ferson Barracks, from St. Louis, and from Fortress Monroe. 
Making all allowances for mistakes, we are warranted in say¬ 
ing that the Northern army consisted of at least fifty-five 
regiments of volunteers, eight companies of regular infantry, 
four of marines, nine of regular cavalry, and twelve batteries, 
forty-nine guns. This army was placed at the command of one 
who was acknowledged to be the greatest and most scientific 
general in the North—General McDowell. This officer had a 
reputation in the army'of being a stoic philosopher a reputa¬ 
tion sought after by a certain number of West Point pupils. 

General Beauregard was fully informed of the movements of 


96 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR, 


McDowell. The vaunting and audacious declaration of the 
enemy’s purpose to force his position, and press on to Rich¬ 
mond, was met by firm and busy preparations for the crisis. 
It was no mean crisis. It was to involve the first important 
shock of arms between two peoples who, from long seasons of 
peace and prosperity, had brought to the struggle more than 
ordinary resources and splendors of war. 

The decisive battle was preceded by the important affair of 
Bull Run, a brief sketch of which, as a precursor to the events 
of the 21st of July, furnishes an intelligent introduction to the 
designs of the enemy, and alike to the complicated plan and 
glorious issue of the great battle that, through the sultry heats 
of a whole day, wrestled over the plains of Manassas. 

Bull Run constitutes the northern boundary of that county 
which it divides from Fairfax; and on its memorable banks, 
about three miles to the northwest of the junction of the 
Manassas Gap with the Orange and Alexandria railroad, was 
fought the gallant action of the 18th of July. It is a small 
stream, running in this locality, nearly from west to east, to 
its confluence with the Occoquan River, about twelve miles 
from the Potomac, and draining a considerable scope of coun¬ 
try, from its source-in Bull Run Mountain to within a short 
distance of the Potomac at Occoquan. Roads traverse and 
intersect the surrounding country in almost every direction. 
The banks of the stream are rocky and steep, but abound in 
long-used fords. At Mitchell’s Ford, the stream is about 
equidistant between Centreville and Manassas, some six miles 
apart. 

Anticipating the determination of the enemy to advance on 
Manassas, General Beauregard had withdrawn his advanced 
brigades within the lines of Bull Run. On the morning of 
the 17tli of July our troops rested on Bull Run, from Union 
Mill’s Ford to the Stone Bridge, a distance of about eight 
miles. The next morning the enemy assumed a threatening 
attitude. Appearing in heavy force in front of the position 
of General Bonham’s brigade, which held the approaches to 
Mitchell’s Ford, the enemy, about the meridian, opened fire 
with several 20-pounder rifle guns from a hill over one and a 
half miles from Bull Run. At first, the firing of the enemy 
was at random; but, by half-past 12 p. m., he had obtained 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


97 


tlie range of our position, and poured into the brigade a shower 
of shot, but without injury to us in men, horses, or guns. Our 
fire was reserved, and our troops impatiently awaited the op 
portune moment. 

In a few moments, a light battery was pushed forward by 
the enemy, whereupon Kemper’s battery, which was attached 
to Bonham’s brigade, and occupied a ridge on the left of the 
Centreville road, threw only six solid shot, with the remark¬ 
able effect of driving back both the battery and its supporting 
force. The unexpected display of skill and accuracy in our 
artillery held the advancing column of the enemy in check, 
while Kemper’s pieces and support were withdrawn across 
Mitchell’s Ford, to a point previously designated, and which 
commanded the direct approaches to the ford. 

In the mean time, the enemy was advancing in*, strong col¬ 
umns of infantry, with artillery and cavalry, on Blackburn’s 
Ford, which was covered by General Longstreet’s brigade. 
The Confederate pickets fell back, silently, across the ford 
before the advancing foe. The entire southern bank of the 
stream, for the whole front of Longstreet’s brigade, was cov¬ 
ered at the water’s edge by an extended line of skirmishers. 
Taking advantage of the steep slopes on tire northern bank of 
the stream, the enemy approached under shelter, in heavy 
force, within less than one hundred yards of our skirmishers. 
Before advancing his infantry, the enemy maintained a tire of 
rifle artillery for half an hour; then he pushed forward a 
column of over three thousand infantry to the assault, with 
such a weight of numbers as to be repelled with difficulty by 
the comparatively small force of not more than twelve hun¬ 
dred bayonets, with which Brigadier-general Longstreet met 
him with characteristic vigor and intrepidity. The repulse of 
this charge of the enemy was, as an exhibition of the devoted 
courage of our troops, the most brilliant incident of the day. 
Not one yard of intrenchment or one rifle-pit protected the 
men at Blackburn’s Ford, who, with rare exceptions, were, on 
that day, the first time under fire, and who, taking and main¬ 
taining every position ordered, exceeded in cool, self-possessed, 
and determined courage the best-trained veterans. Twice the 
enemy was foiled and driven back by our skirmishers and 
Longstreet’s reserve companies. As he returned to the contest 


98 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


with increased numbers, General Longstreet had been rein¬ 
forced from Early’s brigade with two regiments of infantry 
and two pieces of artillery. Unable to effect a passage of the 
stream, the enemy kept up a scattering fire for some time. 
The fire of musketry was soon silenced, and the affair became 
one of artillery. The enemy was superior in the character as 
well as in the number of his weapons, provided with improved 
munitions and every artillery apjdiance, and, at the same 
time, occupying the commanding position. The results of the 
remarkable artillery duel that ensued were fitting precursors 
to the achievements of the twenty-first of July in this unex¬ 
pectedly brilliant arm of our service. In the onset, our fire 
w r as directed against the enemy’s infantry, whose bayonets, 
gleaming above the tree-tops, alone indicated their presence 
and force. This drew the attention of a battery placed on a 
high, commanding ridge, and the duel commenced in earnest. 
For a time, the aim of the adversary was inaccurate, but this 
was quickly corrected, and shot fell and shells burst thick and 
fast in the very midst of our battery. From the position of 
our pieces and the nature of the ground, their aim could only 
be directed by the smoke of the enemy’s artillery; how skil¬ 
fully and with what execution this was done can only be real¬ 
ized by an eye-witness. For a few moments, the guns of the 
enemy were silenced, but were soon reopened. By direction 
of General Longstreet, his battery was then advanced, by hand, 
out of the range now ascertained by the enemy, and a shower 
of spherical case, shell, and round-shot flew over the heads of 
our gunners. From this new position our guns fired as before, 
with no other aim than the smoke and flash of their adversa¬ 
ries’ pieces, and renewed and urged the conflict with such sig¬ 
nal vigor and effect, that gradually the fire of the enemy slack¬ 
ened, the intervals between their discharges grew longer and 
longer, finally to cease; and we fired a last gun at a baffled 
flying foe, whose heavy masses in the distance were plainly 
seen to break and scatter in wild confusion and utter rout, 
strewing the ground with cast-away guns, hats, blankets, and 
knapsacks, as our parting shell was thrown among them. 

Thus ended the brilliant action of Bull Bun. The guns en¬ 
gaged in the singular artillery conflict on our side were three 
six-pounder rifle pieces and four ordinary six-pounders, all of 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


99 


Walton’s battery—the Washington Artillery of New Orleans. 
Our casualties were unimportant—fifteen killed and fifty-three 
wounded. The loss of the enemy can only be conjectured ; it 
was unquestionably heavy. In the cursory examination, which 
was made by details from Longstreet’s and Early’s brigades, 
on the 18th of July, of that portion of the field immediately 
contested and near Blackburn’s Ford, some sixty-four corpses 
were found and buried, and at least twenty prisoners were also 
picked up, besides one hundred and seventy-five stands of 
arms and a large quantity of accoutrements and blankets. 

The effect of the day’s conflict was to satisfy the enemy that 
he could not force a passage across Bull Run in the face of our 
troops, and led him into the flank movement of the 21st of 
July and the battle of Manassas. 

THE BATTLE OF MANASSAS. 

General Scott having matured his plan of battle, ordered : 
General McDowell to advance on Manassas on Sunday, the 
21st of July—three days after the repulse at Bull Run. The 
movement was generally known in Washington ; Congress had. 
adjourned for the purpose of affording its members an oppor¬ 
tunity to attend the battle-field, and as the crowds of camp 
followers and spectators, consisting of politicians, fashionable 
women, idlers, sensation-hunters, editors, &c., hurried in car¬ 
riages, omnibuses, gigs, and every conceivable style of vehicle 
across the Potomac in the direction of the army, the constant 
and unfailing jest was, that they were going on a visit to Rich¬ 
mond. The idea of the defeat of the Grand Army, which, in 
show, splendid boast, and dramatic accessaries, exceeded any 
thing that had ever been seen in America, seems never to have 
crossed the minds of the politicians who went prepared with 
carriage-loads of champagne for festal celebration of the vic¬ 
tory that was to be won, or of the fair dames who were equip¬ 
ped with opera-glasses to entertain themselves with the novel 
scenes of a battle and the inevitable rout of “rebels.” The 
indecencies of this exhibition of morbid curiosity and exultant 
hate are simply unparalleled in the history of civilized na¬ 
tions. Mr Russell, correspondent of the London Times, an 
eye-witness of the scene, describes the concourse of carriages 


100 


\ 

THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

and gayly-dressed spectators in the rear of the array on the 
morning of the battle of Manassas as like a holiday exhibition 
on a race-course. 

The scene was an extraordinary one. It had a beauty and 
grandeur, apart from the revolting spectacle of the indecent 
and bedizened rabble that watched from a hill in the rear of 
the army the dim outlines of the battle and enjoyed the nerv¬ 
ous emotions of the thunders of its artillery. The gay uniforms 
of the Northern soldiers, their streaming flags and glistening 
bayonets, added strange charms to the primeval forests of 
Virginia. No theatre of battle could have been more magnifi¬ 
cent in its addresses to the eye. The plains, broken by a 
wooded and intricate country, were bounded as far as the eye 
could reach to the west by the azure combs of the Blue Ridge. 
The quiet Sabbath morning opened upon the scene enlivened 
by moving masses of men ; the red lights of the morning, how¬ 
ever, had scarcely broken upon that scene, with its landscapes, 
its forests, and its garniture, before it was obscured in the 
clouds of battle.* For long intervals nothing of the conflict 
was presented, to those viewing it at a distance, but wide and 
torn curtains of smoke and dust and the endless beat of the 
artillery. 

Orders had been issued by McDowell for the Grand Army 
to be in motion by two o’clock on the morning of the twenty- 
first, and en route for their different positions in time to reach 
them and be in position by the break of day. It was also or¬ 
dered that they should have four days’ rations cooked and 
stored away in their haversacks—evidently for the purpose of 
gaining Manassas and holding it, until their supplies should 
reach them by the railroad from Alexandria. Thus stood the 
arrangements of the Northern forces on the evening preceding 
the battle of the twenty-first. 

It is a remarkable circumstance of the battle of Manassas, 
that it was fought on our side without any other plan than to 
suit the contingencies arising out of the development of the 
enemy’s designs, as it occurred in the progress of the action. 
Several plans of battle had been proposed by General Beaure¬ 
gard, but had been defeated by the force of circumstances. 
He had been unwilling to receive the enemy on the defensive 
line of Bull Run, and had determined on attacking him at 


the first year of the WAR. 101 

Centre ville. In the mean time, General Johnston had been 
ordered to form a junction of his army corps with that of Gen¬ 
eral. Beauregard, should the movement, in his judgment, he 
advisable. The best service which the army of the Shenan¬ 
doah could render was to prevent the defeat of that of the 
Potomac. To be able to do this, it was necessary for General 
Johnston to defeat General Patterson or to elude him. The 
latter course was the most speedy and certain, and was, there¬ 
fore, adopted. Evading the enemy by the disposition of the 
advance guard under Colonel Stuart, our army moved through 
Ashby’s Gap to Piedmont, a station of the Manassas Gap rail 
road. TIence, the infantry were to be transported by the rail¬ 
way, while the cavalry and artillery were ordered to continue 
their march. General Johnston reached Manassas about noon 
on the twentieth, preceded by the 7th and 8th Georgia regi¬ 
ments and by Jackson’s brigade, consisting of the 2d, 4th, 5th, 
27th and 33d Virginia regiments. He was accompanied by 
General Bee, with the 4th Alabama, the 2d and two compa¬ 
nies of the 11th Mississippi. The president of the railroad had 
assured him that the remaining troops should arrive during 
the day. 

General Johnston, being the senior in rank, necessarily 
assumed command of all the forces of the Confederate States 
then concentrating at Manassas. He,* however, approved the 
plans of General Beauregard, and generously directed their 
execution under his command. It was determined that the 
two forces should be united within the lines of Bull Bun, and 
thence advance to the attack of the enemy, before Patterson’s 
junction with McDowell, which was daily expected. The plan 
of battle was again disconcerted. In consequence of the 
untoward detention on the railroad of some five thousand of 
General Johnston’s forces that had been expected to reach 
Manassas prior to the battle, it became necessary, on the 
morning of the twenty-first, before daylight, to modify the 
plan accepted, to suit the contingency of an immediate attack 
on our lines by the main force of the enemy, then plainly at 
hand. It thus happened that a battle ensued, different in 
place and circumstance from any previous plan on our side. 

Our effective force of all arms, ready for action on the field 
on the eventful morning, was less than thirty thousand men. 


102 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 




Our troops were divided into eiglit brigades, occupying tlie 
defensive line-of Bull Kun. Brigadier-general Ewell’s was 
posted at the Union Mill’s Ford; Brigadier-general D. R. 
Jones’ at McLean’s Ford; Brigadier-general Longstreet’s at 
Blackburn’s Ford; Brigadier-general Bonham’s at Mitchell s 
Ford; Colonel Cocke’s at Ball’s Ford, some three miles above, 
and Colonel Evans, with a regiment and battalion, formed the 
extreme left at the Stone Bridge. The brigades of Brigadier- 
general Holmes and Colonel Early were in reserve in rear of 
the right. 

In his entire ignorance of the enemy’s plan of attack, Gen¬ 
eral Beauregard was compelled to keep his army posted along 
the stream for some eight or ten miles, while his wily adver¬ 
sary developed his purpose to him. The subsequent official 
reports of McDowell and his officers show that that com¬ 
mander had abandoned his former purpose of marching on 
Manassas by the lower routes from Washington and Alexan¬ 
dria, and had resolved upon turning the left flank of the 
Confederates. 

The fifth division of his Grand Army, composed of at least 
four brigades, under command of General Miles, was to re¬ 
main at Centreville, in reserve, and to make a false attack on 
Blackburn’s and Mitchell’s Fords, and thereby deceive Gen¬ 
eral Beauregard as to its intention. The first division, com¬ 
posed of at least three brigades, commanded by General Tyler, 
was to take position at the Stone Bridge, and feign an attack 
upon that point. The third division, composed of at least 
three brigades, commanded by Heintzelman, was to proceed as 
quietly as possible to the Eed House Ford, and there remain, 
until the troops guarding that ford should be cleared away. 
The second division, composed of three or four brigades, com¬ 
manded by Hunter, was to march, unobserved by the Confed¬ 
erate troops, to Sudley, and there cross over the run and 
move down the stream to the Red House Ford, and clear 
away any troops that might be guarding that point, where he 
was to be joined by the third or Heintzelinan’s division. 
Together, these two divisions were to charge upon, and drive 
away any troops that might be stationed at the Stone Bridge, 
when Tyler’s division was to cross over and join them, and 
thus produce a junction of three formidable divisions of tli6 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


103 


Grand Army across tlie run, for offensive operations against 
the forces of General Beauregard, which the enemy expected 
to find scattered along the run for seven or eight miles—the 
hulk of them being at and* below Mitchell’s Ford, and so situ¬ 
ated as to render a concerted movement by them utterly im¬ 
practicable. 

Soon after sunrise, the enemy appeared in force in front of 
Colorel Evans’ position at the Stone Bridge, and opened a 
light i annonade. The monstrous inequality of the tw r o forces 
at this point was not developed. Colonel Evans only ob¬ 
served in his immediate front the advance portion of General 
Schenck’s brigade of General Tyler’s division and two other 
heavy brigades. This division of the enemy’s forces numbered 
nine thousand men and thirteen pieces of artillery—Carlisle’s 
and Ayres’ batteries—that is, nine hundred men and two six- 
pounders confronted by nine thousand men and thirteen pieces 
of artillery, mostly rifled. 

A movement was instantly determined upon by General 
Beauregard to relieve his left flank, by a rapid, determined 
attack with his right wing and centre on the enemy’s flank 
and rear at Centreville, with precautions against the advance 
of his reserves from the direction of Washington. 

In the quarter of the Stone Bridge, the two armies stood 
for more than an hour engaged in slight skirmishing, while 
the main body of the enemy was marching his devious way 
through the “ Big Forest,” to cross Bull Bun some two miles 
above our left, to take our forces in flank and rear. This 
movement was fortunately discovered in time for us to check 
its progress, and ultimately to form a new line of battle nearly 
at right angles with the defensive line of Bull Bun. 

On discovering that the enemy had crossed the stream 
above him, Colonel Evans moved to his left with eleven com¬ 
panies and two field-pieces to oppose his advance, and dis¬ 
posed his little force under cover of the wood, near the inter¬ 
section of the Warren ton turnpike and the Sudley road. 
Here he was attacked by the enemy in immensely superior 
numbers. 

The enemy beginning his detour from the turnpike, at a 
point nearly half-way between Stone Bridge and Centreville, 
had pursued a tortuous, narrow track of a rarely used road, 


104 


THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


through a dense wood, the greater part of his way until near 
the Sudley road. A division under Colonel Hunter, of the 
Federal regular army, of two strong brigades, was in the ad¬ 
vance, followed immediately by another division, under Colo¬ 
nel Heintzelman of three brigades, and seven companies of 
regular cavalry, and twenty-four pieces of artillery—eighteen 
of which were rifled guns. This column, as it crossed Bull 
Run, numbered over sixteen thousand men, of all arms, by 
their own accounts. 

Burnside’s brigade—which here, as at Fairfax Court-house, 
led the advance—at about 9.45 a. m., debouched from a wood 
in sight of Evans’ position, some five hundred yards distant 
from Wheat’s Louisiana battalion. He immediately threw 
forward his skirmishers in force, and they became engaged 
with Wheat’s command. The Federalists at once advanced, 
as they report officially, the 2d Rhode Island regiment volun¬ 
teers, with its vaunted battery of six thirteen-pounder rifle 
guns. Sloan’s companies of the 4th South Carolina were then 
brought into action, having been pushed forward through the 
woods. The enemy, soon galled and staggered by the fire, 
and pressed by the determined valor with which Wheat han¬ 
dled his battalion, until he was desperately wounded, hast¬ 
ened up three other regiments of the brigade and two Dahl- 
gren howitzers, making in all quite three thousand five hun¬ 
dred bayonets and eight pieces of artillery, opposed to less 
than eight hundred men and two six-pounder guns. 

Despite the odds, this intrepid command, of but eleven 
weak companies, maintained its front to the enemy for quite 
an hour, and until General Bee came to their aid with his 
command. 

General Bee moving towards the enemy, guided by the 
firing, had selected the position near the now famous “ Henry 
House,” and formed his troops upon it. They were the 7th 
and 8th Georgia under Colonel Bartow, the 4th Alabama, 2d 
Mississippi, and two companies of the 11th Mississippi regi¬ 
ments, with Imboden’s battery. Being compelled, however, 
to sustain Colonel Evans, he crossed the valley, and formed 
on the right and somewhat in advance of his position. Here 
the joint force, little exceeding five regiments, with six field- 
pieces, held the ground against about fifteen thousand Federal 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


105 


troops. A fierce and destructive conflict now ensued—tlie fire 
was withering on both sides, while the enemy swept our short, 
thin lines with their numerous artillery, which, according to 
their official reports, at this time consisted of at least ten rifle 
guns and four howitzers. For an hour did these stout-hearted 
mt n, of the blended commands of Bee, Evans, and Bartow, 
breast an unintermitting battle-storm, animated surely by 
something more than the ordinary courage of even the bravest 
men under fire. 

Two Federal brigades of Ileintzelman’s division were now 
brought into action, led by Bickett’s superb light battery of 
six ten-pounder rifle guns, which, posted on an eminence to the 
right of the Sudley road, opened fire on Imboden’s battery. 
At this time, confronting the enemy, we had still but Evans’ 
eleven companies and two guns—Bee’s and Bartow’s four 
regiments, the two companies 11th Mississippi under Lieuten¬ 
ant-colonel Liddell, and the six pieces under Imboden and 
Kichardson. The enemy had two divisions of four strong 
brigades, including seventeen companies of regular infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery, four companies of marines, and twenty 
pieces of artillery. Against this odds, scarcely credible, our 
advance position was still for a while maintained, and the 
enemy’s ranks constantly broken and shattered under the 
scorching fire of our men; but fresh regiments of the Fed- 
erals came upon the field, Sherman’s and Keyes’ brigades of 
Tyler’s division, as is stated in their reports, numbering over 
six thousand bayonets, which had found a passage across the 
Bun, about eight hundred yards above the Stone Bridge, 
threatened our right. 

Heavy losses had now been sustained on our side, both in 
numbers and in the .personal worth of the slain. The 8th 
Georgia regiment had suffered heavily, being exposed, as it 
took and maintained its position, to a fire frpm the enemy, 
already posted within a hundred yards of their front and 
right, sheltered by fences and other cover. The 4th Alabama 
also suffered severely from the deadly fire of the thousands of 
muskets which they so dauntlessly confronted under the im¬ 
mediate leadership of the chivalrous Bee himself. 

How, however, with the surging mass of over fourteen 
thousand Federal infantry pressing on their front and under 


106 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


the incessant fire of at least twenty pieces of artillery, with 
the fresh brigades of Sherman and Keyes approaching—the 
latter already in musket range—our lines gave back, but under 
orders from General Bee. 

As our shattered battalions retired, the slaughter was de¬ 
plorable. They fell back in the direction of the Robinson 
Ilouse, under the fires of Heintzelman’s division on one side, 
Keyes’ and Sherman’s brigades of Tyler’s division on the 
other, and Hunter’s division in their rear, and were compelled 
to engage the enemy at several points on their retreat, losing 
both officers and men, in order to keep them from closing in 
around them. Under the inexorable stress of the enemy’s 
fire the retreat continued. The enemy seemed to be inspired 
with the idea that he had won the field; the news of a victory 
was carried to the rear, and, in less than an hour thereafter, 
the telegraph had flashed the intelligence through all the cities 
in the North, that the Federal troops were completing their 
victory, and premature exultations ran from mouth to mouth 
in Washington. 

If the enemy had observed the circumstances and character 
of this falling back of a portion of our lines, it would have 
been enough to have driven him in consternation from the 
field. With the terrible desperation that had sustained them 
so long in the face of fivefold odds and the most frightful 
losses, our troops fell back sullenly ; at every step of their re¬ 
treat staying, by their hard skirmishing, the flanking columns 
of the enemy. 

The retreat was finally arrested just in rear of the Robinson 
House by the energy and resolution of General Bee, assisted by 
the support of the Hampton Legion, and the timely arrival of 
Jackson’s brigade of five regiments. A moment before, General 
Bee had been well-nigh overwhelmed by superior numbers. 
He approached General Jackson with the pathetic exclama¬ 
tion, “ General, they are beating us backto which the 
latter promptly replied, “ Sir, we’ll give them the bayonet.” 
General Bee immediately rallied his over-tasked troops with 
the words, “There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let 
us determine to die here, and we will conquer.” 

In the mean time, the crisis of the battle and the full devel¬ 
opment of the enemy’s designs had been perceived by our 


THE FIRST YEAR OF* THE WAR. 


107 


generals. They were yet four miles away from the immediate 
field of action, having placed themselves on a commanding 
hill in rear of General Bonham’s left, to observe the move¬ 
ments of the enemy. There could be no mistake now of the 
enemy's intentions, from the violent firing on the left and the 
immense clouds of dust raised by the march of a large body 
of troops from his centre. With the keenest impatience, 
General Beauregard awaited the execution of his orders of 
the morning, which were intended to relieve his left flank by 
an attack on the enemy’s flank and rear at Centreville. As 
the continuous roll of musketry and the sustained din of the 
artillery announced the serious outburst of the battle on our 
left flank, he anxiously, but confidently, awaited similar sounds 
of conflict from our front at Centreville. When it was too late* 
for the effective execution of the contemplated movement, he 
was informed, to his profound disappointment, that his orders 
for an advance had miscarried. 

No time was to be lost. It became immediately necessary 
to depend on new combinations, and to meet the enemy on the 
field upon which he had chosen to give us battle. It was plain 
that nothing but the most rapid combinations and the most 
heroic and devoted courage on the part of our troops could 
retrieve the field, which, according to all military conditions, 
appeared to be positively lost. 

About noon, the scene of the battle was unutterably sub¬ 
lime. Not until then could one of the present generation, who 
had never witnessed a grand battle, have imagined such a 
spectacle. The hill occupied in the morning by Generals 
Beauregard, Johnston, and Bonham, and their staffs, placed 
the whole scene before one—a grand, moving diorama. When 
the firing was at its height, the roar of artillery reached the 
hill like that of protracted thunder. For one long mile the 
whole valley was a boiling crater of dust and smoke. Occa¬ 
sionally the yells of our men, in the few instances in which the 
enemy fell back, rose above the roar of artillery. In the dis¬ 
tance rose the Blue Bidge, to form the dark background of a 
most magnificent picture. 

The condition of the battle-field was now, at the least, des¬ 
perate. Our left flank was overpowered, and it became neces- 
sary to bring immediately up to tlieir support the reserves not 


108 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


already in motion. Holmes’ two regiments and battery of 
artillery, under Captain Lindsey Walker, of six guns, and 
Early's brigade, were immediately ordered up to support our 
left flank. Two regiments from Bonham’s brigade, with Kern 
per’s four six-pounders, were also called for, and Generals 
Ewell, Jones (D. R.), Longstreet, and Bonham were directed 
to make a demonstration to their several fronts to retain and 
engross the enemy’s reserves, and any forces on their flank, and 
at and around Centreville. 

Dashing on at headlong gallop, General Johnston and Gen¬ 
eral Beauregard reached the field of action not a moment too 
soon. They were instantly occupied with the reorganization 
of the heroic troops, whose previous stand in stubborn and 
patriotic valor has nothing to exceed it in the records of his¬ 
tory. It was now that General Johnston impressively and 
gallantly charged to the front, with the colors of the 4th 
Alabama regiment by his side. The presence of the two 
generals with the troops under fire, and their example, had the 
happiest effect. Order was soon restored. In a brief and 
rapid conference, General Beauregard was assigned to the 
command of the left, which, as the younger officer, he claimed, 
while General Johnston returned to that of the whole field. 

The battle was now re-established. The aspect of affairs 
was critical and desperate in the extreme. 

Confronting the enemy at this time, General Beauregard’s 
forces numbered, at most, not more than six thousand five 
hundred infantry and artillerists, with but thirteen pieces of 
artillery, and two companies of Stuart’s cavalry. 

The enemy’s force now bearing hotly and confidently down 
on our position—regiment after regiment of the best-equipped 
men that ever took the field—according to their own official 
history of the day, was formed of Colonels Hunter’s and 
Heintzelman’s divisions, Colonels Sherman’s and Keyes’ bri¬ 
gades of Tyler’s division, and of the formidable batteries of 
Ricketts, Griffin, and Arnold regulars, and 2d Rhode Island, 
and two Dahlgren howitzers—a force of over twenty thou¬ 
sand infantry, seven companies of regular cavalry, and twenty- 
four pieces of improved artillery. At the same time, peril¬ 
ous, heavy reserves of infantry and artillery hung in the 
distance, around the Stone Bridge, Mitchell’s, Blackburn’s, and 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


109 


Union Mill’s Fords, visibly ready to fall upon us at any mo¬ 
ment. 

Fully conscious of the portentous disparity of force, General 
Beauregard, as he posted the lines for the encounter, spoke 
words of encouragement to the men to inspire their confidence 
and determined spirit of resistance. He urged them to the 
resolution of victory or death on the field. The men responded 
with loud and eager cheers, and the commander felt reassured 
of the unconquerable spirit of his army. 

In the mean time, the enemy had seized upon the plateau on 
which Robinson’s and the Henry houses * are situated—the 
position first occupied in the morning by General Bee, before 
advancing to the support of Evans—Ricketts’ battery of six 
rifle guns, the pride of the Federalists, the object of their un¬ 
stinted expenditure in outfit, and the equally powerful regular 
light battery of Griffin, were brought forward and placed in 
immediate action, after having, conjointly with the batteries 
already mentioned, played from former positions with destruc¬ 
tive effect upon our forward battalions. 

About two o’clock in the afternoon, General Beauregard 
gave the order for the right of his line, except his reserves, to 
advance to recover the plateau. It was done with uncommon 
resolution and vigor, and at the same time Jackson’s brigade 
pierced the enemy’s centre with the determination of veterans 
and the spirit of men who fight for a sacred cause ; but it suf¬ 
fered seriously. With equal spirit the other parts of the line 
made the onset, and the Federal lines were broken and swept 
back at all points from the open ground of the plateau. Ral¬ 
lying soon, however, as they were strongly reinforced by fresh 
regiments, the Federals returned, and, by the weight of num¬ 
bers, pressed our lines back, recovered their ground and guns, 
and renewed the offensive. 

By this time, between half-past 2 and 3 o’clock, p. m., our 
reinforcements pushed forward, and directed by General John¬ 
ston to the required quarter, were at hand just as General 
Beauregard had ordered forward to a second effort, for the 
recovery of the disputed plateau, the whole line, including his 


* These houses were small wooden buildings, occupied at the time, the one 
by the Widow Henry and the other by the free negro Robinson. 



110 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


reserve, which, at this crisis of the battle, the commander felt 
called upon to lead in person. This attack was general, and 
was shared in by every regiment then in the field, including 
the 6th (Fisher’s) North Carolina regiment, which had just 
come up. The whole open ground was again swept clear of 
the enemy, and the plateau around the Henry and Robinson 
houses remained finally in our possession, with the greater 
part of the Ricketts and Griffin batteries. This part of the 
day was rich with deeds of individual coolness and dauntless 
conduct, as well as well-directed, embodied resolution and 
bravery, but fraught with the loss to the service of the coun¬ 
try of lives of inestimable preciousness at this juncture. The 
brave Bee was mortally wounded at the head of the 4th Ala¬ 
bama and some Mississippians, in the open field near the 
Henry house ; and, a few yards distant, Colonel Bartow had 
fallen, shot through the heart. He was grasping the standard 
of his regiment as he was shot, and calling the remnants of 
his command to rally and follow him. He spoke after receiv¬ 
ing his mortal wound, and his words were memorable. To the 
few of his brave men who gathered around him he said, “ They 
have killed me, but never give up the field.” The last com¬ 
mand was gallantly obeyed, and his men silenced the battery 
of which he died in the charge. Colonel Fisher had also been 
killed. He had fallen at the head of the torn and thinned 
ranks of his regiment. 

The conflict had been awfully terrific. The enemy had been 
driven back on our right entirely across the turnpike, and 
beyond Young’s Branch on our left. At this moment, the 
desired reinforcements arrived. Withers’ 18th regiment of 
Cocke’s brigade had come up in time to follow the charge. 
Kershaw’s 2d and Cash’s 8th South Carolina regiments ar¬ 
rived soon after Withers’, and were assigned an advantageous 
position. A more important accession, however, to our forces 
was at hand. A courier had galloped from Manassas to report 
that a Federal army had reached the line of the Manassas 
Gap railroad, was marching towards us, and was then about 
three or four miles from our left flank. Instead, however, of 
the enemy, it was the long-expected reinforcements. General 
Kirby Smith, with some seventeen hundred infantry of El- 
zey’s brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah and Beckham’s 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Ill 


battery, had reached Manassas, by railroad, at noon. His 
forces were instantly marched across the fields to the scene of 
action. 

The flying enemy had been rallied under cover of a strong 
Federal brigade, posted on a plateau near the intersection of 
the turnpike and the Sudley-Brentsville road, and was now 
making demonstrations to outflank and drive back our left, 
and thus separate us from Manassas. General Smith was in¬ 
structed by General Johnston to attack the right flank of the 
enemy, now exposed to us. . Before the movement was com¬ 
pleted, he fell severely wounded. Colonel Elzey, at once tak¬ 
ing command, proceeded to execute it with promptness and 
vigor, while General Beauregard rapidly seized the opportu¬ 
nity, and threw forward his whole line. 

About 3.30 p. m., the enemy, driven back on their left and 
centre, and brushed from the woods bordering the Sudley 
road, south and west from the Henry house, had formed a line 
of battle of truly formidable proportions, of crescent outline, 
reaching, on their left, from the vicinity of Pittsylvania (the 
old Carter mansion), by Matthew’s and in rear of Dogan’s, 
across the turnpike near to Chinn’s house. The woods and 
fields were filled with their masses of infantry and their care¬ 
fully preserved cavalry. It was a truly magnificent, though 
redoubtable spectacle, as they threw forward in fine style, on 
the broad gentle slopes of the ridge occupied by their main 
lines, a cloud of skirmishers, preparatory for another attack. 

Colonel Early, who, by some mischance, did not receive 
orders until 2 o’clock, which had been sent him at noon, came 
on the ground immediately after Elzey, with Kemper’s 7th 
Virginia, Hay’s 7th Louisiana, and Barksdale’s 13th Missis¬ 
sippi regiments. This brigade, by the personal direction of 
General Johnston, was marched by the Holkham house, across 
the fields to the left, entirely around the woods through which 
Elzey had passed, and under a severe fire, into a position in 
line of battle near Chinn’s house, outflanking the enemy’s 
right. 

The enemy was making his last attempt to retrieve the day. 
He had re-formed to renew the battle, again extending his 
right with a still wider sweep to turn our left. Colonel Early 
was ordered to throw himself directly upon the right flank ol 


112 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


the enemy, supported by Colonel Stuart’s cavalry and Beck¬ 
ham’s battery. As Early formed his line, and Beckham’s 
pieces played upon the right of the enemy, Elzey’s brigade, 
‘Gibbons’ 10th Virginia, Lieut.-colonel Stuart’s 1st Maryland, 
and Vaughan’s 3d Tennessee regiments, and Cash’s 8th and 
Kershaw’s 2d South Carolina, Withers’ 18th and Preston’s 28th 
Virginia, advanced in an irregular line, almost simultaneously. 
The charge made by General Beauregard in front, was sus¬ 
tained by the resolute attack of Early on the right flank and 
rear. The combined attack was too much for the enemy. He 
was forced over the narrow plateau made by the intersection 
of the two roads already mentioned. He was driven into the 
fields, where his masses commenced to scatter in all available 
directions towards Bull Run. He had lost all the artillery 
which he had advanced to the last scene of the conflict; he 
had no more fresh troops to rally on, and there were no combi¬ 
nations to avail him to make another stand. The day was 
ours. From the long-contested hill from which the enemy had 
been driven back, his retreating masses might be seen to break 
over the fields stretching beyond, as the panic gathered in their 
rear. The rout had become general and confused; the fields 
were covered with black swarms of flying soldiers, while cheers 
and yells taken up along our lines, for the distance of miles, 
rung in the ears of the panic-stricken fugitives. 

THE ROUT. 

Early’s brigade, meanwhile, joined by the 19tli Virginia 
regiment, of Cocke’s brigade, pursued the now panic-stricken 
fugitive enemy. Stuart, with his cavalry, and Beckham had 
also taken up the pursuit along the road by which the enemy 
had come upon the field that morning; but, soon cumbered by 
prisoners who thronged the way, the former was unable to at¬ 
tack the mass of the fast-fleeing, frantic Federals. The want 
of a cavalry force of sufficient numbers made an efficient pur¬ 
suit a military impossibility. 

But the pressure of close and general pursuit was not neces¬ 
sary to disorganize the flight of the enemy. Capt. Kemper 
pursued the retreating masses to within range of Cub Run 
Bridge. Upon the bridge, a shot took effect upon the horses 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


113 


of a team that was crossing. The wagon was overturned di¬ 
rectly in the centre of the bridge, and the passage was com¬ 
pletely obstructed. The Confederates continued to play their 
artillery upon the train carriages and artillery wagons, and 
these were reduced to ruins. Cannons and caissons, ambu¬ 
lances and train-wagons, and hundreds of soldiers rushed down 
the hill into a common heap, struggling and scrambling to 
cross the stream and get away from their pursuers. 

The retreat, the panic, the heedless, headlong confusion was 
soon beyond a hope. Officers with leaves and eagles on their 
shoulder-straps, majors and colonels who had deserted their 
comrades, passed, galloping as if for dear life. Not a field-offi¬ 
cer seemed to have remembered his duty. The flying teams 
and wagons confused and dismembered every corps. For 
three miles, hosts of the Federal troops—all detached from 
their regiments, all mingled in one disorderly rout—were flee¬ 
ing along t]ie road. Army wagons, sutler’s teams, and private 
carriages choked the passage, tumbling against each other amid 
clouds of dust, and sickening sights and sounds. Hacks con¬ 
taining unlucky spectators of the late affray were smashed like 
glass, and the occupants were lost sight of in the debris. 
Horses, flying wildly from the battle-field, many of them in 
death agony, galloped at random forward, joining in the stam¬ 
pede. Those on foot who could catch them rode them bareback, 
as much to save themselves from being run over as to make 
quick time. 

Wounded men lying along the banks—the few either left on 
the field or not taken to the captured hospitals—appealed, with 
raised hands, to those who rode horses, begging to be lilted 
behind ; but few regarded such petitions. Then, the artillery, 
such as was saved, came thundering along, smashing and over¬ 
powering every thing. Hie regular cavalry joined in the 
melee, adding to its terrors, for they rode down footmen with¬ 
out mercy. One of the great guns was overturned and lay 
amid the ruins of a caisson. Sights of wild and terrible agony 
met the eye everywhere. An eye-witness of the sfcene de¬ 
scribes the despairing efforts of an artilleryman, who was run¬ 
ning between the ponderous fore and after wheels of His gun- 
carriage, hanging on with both hands and vainly stiiving to 
jump upon the ordnance. The drivers were spurring the 


114 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


horses; he could not cling much longer, and a more agonized 
expression never fixed the features of a drowning man. The 
carriage bounded from the roughness of a steep hill leading to 
a creek; he lost his hold, fell, and in an instant the great 
wheels had crushed the life out of him. 

The retreat did not slacken in the least until Centreville was 
reached. There, the sight of the reserve—Miles’s brigade— 
formed in order on the hill, seemed somewhat to reassure the 
van. The rally was soon overcome by a few sharp discharges 
of artillery, the Confederates having a gun taken from the en¬ 
emy in position. The teams and foot-soldiers pushed cn, passing 
their own camp and heading swiftly for the distant Potomac. 

The men literally screamed with rage and fright when their 
way was blocked up. At every shot, a convulsion, as it were, 
seized upon the morbid- mass of bones, sinews, wood, and iron, 
and thrilled through it, giving new energy and action to its 
desperate efforts to get free from itself. The cry of “ cavalry” 
arose. Mounted men still rode faster, shouting out, “ cavalry 
is coming.” For miles the roar of the flight might be heard. 
]STegro servants on led-horses dashed frantically past, men in 
uniform swarmed by on mules, chargers, and even draught 
horses, which had been cut out of carts and wagons, and went 
on with harness clinging to their heels as frightened as their 
riders. “ We’re whipped,” “ we’re whipped,” was the univer¬ 
sal cry. The buggies and light wagons tried to pierce the rear 
of the mass of carts, which were now solidified and moving on 
like a glacier; while further ahead the number of mounted 
men increased, and the volume of fugitives became denser. 

For ten miles, the road over which the Grand Army had so 
lately passed southward, gay with unstained banners, and 
flushed with surety of strength, was covered with the frag¬ 
ments of its retreating forces, shattered and panic-stricken in a 
single day. 

It is impossible to conceive of a more deplorable spectacle 
than was presented in Washington as the remnants of the army 
came straggling in. During Sunday evening, it had been sup¬ 
posed in the streets of the Federal city that its army had won 
a decisive and brilliant victory. The elation was extreme. 
At each echo of the peals of the cannon, men were seen on the 
street leaping up and exclaiming—“ There goes another hun- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


115 


dred of tlie d-d rebels.” The next morning the news of 

defeat was brought by the tide of the panic-stricken fugitives. 
One of the boats from Alexandria came near being sunk by the . 
rush of the panic-stricken soldiers upon its decks. Their panic 
did not stop with their arrival in Washington. They rushed to 
the depot to continue their flight from W ashington. The gov em¬ 
inent was compelled to put it under a strong guard to keep off 
the fugitives who struggled to get on the Northern trains. 
Others fled wildly into the country. Not a few escaped across 
the Susquehanna in this manner, compelling the negroes they 
met to exchange their clothes with them for their uniforms. 
For four or five days, the wild and terror-stricken excitement 
prevailed. Many of the fugitives, with garments nearly torn 
from them, and covered with the blood of their wounds, 
thronged the streets with mutinous demonstrations. Others, 
exhausted with fatigue and hunger, fear and dismay upon their 
countenances, with torn clothing, covered with dust and blood, 
were to be seen in all quarters of the city, lying upon the pave¬ 
ments, cellar-doors, or any other spot that offered them a place 
for the repose which nature demanded. Many of them had 
nothing of the appearance of soldiers left except their be¬ 
smeared and tattered uniforms. They did not pretend to ob¬ 
serve any order, nor did their officers seem to exercise the least 
authority over them. Some recounted to horror-stricken au¬ 
diences the bloody prowess of the Confederate troops. The city 
of Washington was for days in trembling expectation of the ad¬ 
vance of the Confederate army, flushed with victory and intent 
upon planting its flag upon the summits of the Northern capital. 

We had, indeed, won a splendid victory, to judge from its 
fruits within the limits of the battle-field. The events of the 
battle of Manassas were glorious for our people, and were 
thought to be of crushing effect upon the morale of our hitherto 
confident and overweening adversary. Our loss was consider¬ 
able. The killed outright numbered 369; the wounded, 1,483 ; 
making an aggregate of 1,852. The actual loss of the enemy 
will never be known ; it may now only be conjectured. Their 
abandoned dead, as they were buried by our people where they 
fell, unfortunately were not enumerated, but many parts of the 
field were thick with their corpses, as hut few battle-fields have 
ever been. The official reports of the enemy are expressly si- 


116 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


lent on this point, but still afford us data for an approximate 
estimate. Left almost in the dark, in respect to the losses of 
Hunter’s and Heintzelman’s divisions—first, longest, and most 
hotly engaged—we are informed that Sherman’s brigade— 
Tyler’s division—suffered in killed, wounded, and missing, 609 ; 
that is about 18 per cent, of the brigade. A regiment of 
Franklin’s brigade—Gorman’s—lost 21 per cent. Griffin’s 
(battery) loss was 30 per cent.; and that of Keyes’ brigade, 
which was so handled by its commander, as to he exposed to 
only occasional volleys from our troops, was at least 10 per 
cent. To these facts add the repeated references in the reports 
of the more reticent commanders, to the “ murderous” fire to 
which they were habitually exposed—the “ pistol range ” vol¬ 
leys, and galling musketry, of which they speak, as scourging 
their ranks, and we are warranted in placing the entire loss of 
the Federalists at over 4,500 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, 
28 pieces of artillery, about 5,000 muskets, and nearly 500,000 
cartridges; a garrison flag and 10 colors were captured on tlifc 
field or in the pursuit. Besides these, we captured 64 artillery 
horses, with their harness, 26 wagons, and much camp equipage, 
clothing, and other property, abandoned in their flight. 

The news of our great victory was received by the people of 
the South without indecent exultations. The feeling was one 
of deep and quiet congratulation, singularly characteristic of 
the Southern people. A superficial observer would have 
judged Richmond, the Confederate capital, spiritless und£r the 
news. There were no bells rung, no bonfires kindled, no exul¬ 
tations of a mob, and none of that parade with which the North 
had exploited their pettiest successes in the opening of the war. 
But there was what superficial observation might not have 
apprehended and could not have appreciated—a deep, serious, 
thrilling enthusiasm, which swept thousands of hearts, which 
was too solemn for wild huzzas, and too thoughtful to be uttered 
in the eloquence of ordinary words. The tremulous tones of 
deep emotion, the silent grasp of the hand, the faces of men 
catching the deep and burning enthusiasm of unuttered feelings 
from each other, composed an eloquence to which words would 
have been a mockery. Shouts would have marred the solem¬ 
nity of the general joy. The manner of the reception of the 
news in Richmond was characteristic of the conservative and 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


117 


poised spirit of our government and people. Tlie only national 
recognition of the victory was the passage of resolutions in the 
Provisional Congress, acknowledging the interposition and 
mercies of Providence in the affairs of the Confederacy, and 
recommending thanksgiving services in all the churches of the 
South on the ensuing Sabbath. 

The victory had been won by the blood of many of our best 
and bravest, and the public sorrow over the dead was called 
upon to pay particular tributes to many of our officers who 
had fallen in circumstances of particular gallantry. Among 
others, Gen. Bee, to whose soldierly distinction and heroic ser¬ 
vices on the field justice was- never fully done, until they were 
especially pointed out in the official reports, both of General 
Johnston and General Beauregard, had fallen upon the field. 
The deceased general was a graduate of West Point. During 
the Mexican war, he had served with marked distinction, win¬ 
ning two brevets before the close of the war; the last that of 
captain, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the storming of 
Chapultepec. His aphievements since that time in wars 
among the Indians were such as to attract towards him the 
attention of his State; and in his dying hand, on the field in 
which he fell, he grasped the sword which South Carolina had 
taken pride in presenting him. 

Colonel Francis S. Bartow, of Georgia, who had fallen in 
the |ame charge in which the gallant South Carolinian had 
received his death-wound, was chairman of the IVlilitaiy Com¬ 
mittee of the Provisional Congress, and that body paid a pub¬ 
lic tribute of more than usual solemnity and eloquence to his 


memory.' 


* An eloquent tribute was paid to the memory of Colonel Bartow in Con- 
gress by Mr. Mason, of Virginia, in which some interesting recitals were 
given of Colonel Bartow’s short, but brilliant experiences of the camp. The 
following extract is indicative of a spirit of confidence, which was peculiarly 

characteristic of the officers and men alike of oqr army: 

“While in camp, and before the advance of Patterson’s column into Vir¬ 
ginia but while it yet hovered on the border in Maryland, watched closely 
by Johnston’s army, I said, casually, to Colonel Bartow, ‘ The time is ap¬ 
proaching when your duties will call you to meet Congress at Richmond and 
I look to the pleasure of travelling therewith you.’ He replied, I dont 
think I can go; my duties will detain me here.’ I told him that if a battle 
was fought between the two armies, it certainly was not then imminent, and 
I thought his service in Congress, and especially as chairman of the Military 





113 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


The results of the victory of Manassas were, on the first 
days of its full announcement, received in the South as indica¬ 
tive of a speedy termination of the war. The advance of our 
army on Washington was impatiently expected. A few days 
passed, and it became known to the almost indignant disap¬ 
pointment of the people, that our army had no thoughts of an 
advance upon the Northern capital, and was content to remain 
where it was, occupying the defensive line of Bull Run. 

Much has been said and written in excuse of the palpable 
and great error, the perniciousness of which no one doubted 
after its effects were realized, of the failure of the Confederate 
army to take advantage of its victory, and press on to Wash¬ 
ington, where for days there was nothing to oppose them but 


Committee, would be even more valuable to the country in Congress, than in 
the field. After a pause, and with a beaming eye, he said: ‘ No, sir; I shall 
never leave this army, until the battle is fought and won.’ And, afterwards, 
while the two armies lay in front of each other, the enemy at Martinsburg, 
and Johnston with his command at Bunker Hill, only seven miles apart—the 
enemy we knew numbered some twenty-two thousand men, while on our side 
we could not present* against them half that number, and the battle hourly 
expected. His head-quarters under a tree in an orchard, and his shelter and 
shade from a burning sun the branches of that tree, and his table a camp 
chest—I joined him at dinner. Little is, of course, known of the views and 
purposes of a general in command, but it was generally understood that 
Johnston was then to give the enemy battle, should he invite it. In conver¬ 
sation on the chances of the fight, I said to Bartow, ‘ of the spirit and courage 
of the troops I have no doubt, but the odds against you are immense.’** His 
prompt reply was, ‘ they can never whip us. We shall not count the odds. 
We may be exterminated, but never conquered. I shall go into that fight 
with a determination never to leave the field alive, but in victory, and I know 
that the same spirit animates my whole command. How, then, can they whip 
us ?’ 

“Am I here to tell you how gallantly and truthfully he made that vow good, 
on the bloody plain at Manassas, and how nobly the troops under his com¬ 
mand there redeemed the pledge made for them? The ‘ battle was fought 
and won,’ as he vowed at Bunker Hill, and he sealed in death his first promise 
in the field of war. Will you call this courage—bravery ? No, no. Bartow 
never thought of the perils of the fight. Bravery, as it is termed, may be 
nothing more than nervous insensibility. With him the incentives to the 
battle-field were of a far different type. The stern and lofty purpose to free 
his country from the invader; the calm judgment of reason, paramount on its 
throne, overruling all other sensations; resolution and will combined to the *• 
deed, the consequence to take care of itself. There is the column of true 
majesty in man. Such was Bartow, and such will impartial history record 
him. He won immortality in Fame, even at the threshold of her temple.” 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAJR. 


119 


an utterly demoralized army, intent upon a continuance of 
tlieir flight at the approach of our forces. In his official re¬ 
port, General Johnston insists that “no serious thoughts” were 
ever entertained of advancing against the capital, as it was 
considered certain that the fresh troops within the works were, 
in number, quite sufficient for their defence; and that if not, 
General Patterson’s army would certainly reinforce them soon 
enough. This excuse takes no account of the utterly demor¬ 
alized condition of the Northern forces at Washington; and 
the further explanations of the inadequate means of our army 
in ammunition, provisions, and transportation are only satis¬ 
factory excuses, why the toil of pursuit was not undertaken 
immediately after the battle, and do not answer with complete 
satisfaction the inquiry why an advance movement was not 
made within the time when means for it might have been fur¬ 
nished, and the enemy was still cowed, dispirited, and trembling 
for his safety in the refuges of Washington. 

The fact is, that our army had shown no capacity to under¬ 
stand the extent of their fortunes, or to use the unparalleled 
opportunities they had so bravely won. They had achieved a 
victory not less brilliant than that of Jena, and not more profit¬ 
able than that of Alma. Instead of entering the gates of 
Sebastopol from the last-named field, the victors preferred to 
wait and reorganize, and found, instead of a glorious and un¬ 
resisting prey, a ten months’ siege. 

Tlie lesson of a lost opportunity in the victory of Manassas 
had to be repeated to the South with additions of misfortune. 
For months the world was to witness our largest army in the 
field confronting in idleness and the demoralizations of a sta¬ 
tionary camp an enemy already routed within twenty miles of 
his capital; giving him the opportunity not only to repair the 
shattered columns of his Grand Army, but to call nearly half a 
million of new men into the field; to fit out four extensive 
armadas ; to fall upon a defenceless line of sea-coast; to open a 
new theatre of war in the West and on the Mississippi, and to 
cover the frontiers of half a continent with his armies and 
navies. 


120 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE. 

A friend, Captain McFarland, who did service in the battle 
of Manassas as a private in Captain Powell’s Virginia cavalry, 
has furnished ns with a diary of some thrilling incidents of 
the action. Me use a few of them in Captain McFarland’s 
words: 

“ At 8 a. m. we proceeded to take position as picket guard and videttes in 
a little clump of timber, about three quarters of a mile, directly in front of the 
Confederate earth-works at Mitchell’s Ford. The picket consisted of twelve 
infantry and three cavalry. Having secured our horses, we lay down in the 
edge of the timber, and with our long-range rifles commenced to pick off such 
of the enemy as were sufficiently presumptuous to show themselves clear of 
the heavy timber which crowned the distant hill. In a short time, the enemy, 
being very much annoyed by our sharp shooting, ran out from the woods, 
both in our front and on the left, two rifle pieces, and threw their conical 
shells full into our covert. The pickets, however, were not dislodged. But two 
of our horses became frantic from the whistling and explosion of the shells, 
and we found it necessary to remove them. Just at this moment, a detachment 
of the enemy’s cavalry came dashing down the road, but halted before they 
came within range of the muskets of the infantry. The enemy then com¬ 
menced a heavy firing with artillery on our earth-works at the ford, and we 
retired beyond Bull Run. 

In the mean time, the thunder of battle was heard on our left, and from the 
heights above the stream could be seen the smoke from the scene of the con¬ 
flict, which, as it shifted position, showed the varying tide of conflict. Occa¬ 
sionally, a small white cloud of smoke made its appearance above the horizon, 
indicating the premature explosion of a bomb-shell ; while, at painfully regu¬ 
lar intervals, the dull, heavy report of the enemy’s thirty-two pounder told us 
that its position remained unassailed. In the mean time, the infantry in the 
trenches at Mitchell’s Ford were impatiently awaiting the vainly looked-for 
advance upon our breastworks. The enemy threw their shells continuously 
into this locality, but during the whole day killed only three men, and these 
were standing up contrary to orders. This position was commanded by the 
brave Brigadier-general M. L. Bonham, of South Carolina. 

About 11 o’clock, the cavalry were ordered to ride to the main field of 
action, in the vicinity of the Stone Bridge. We set off at a dashing gallop, 
throwing down fences and leaping ditches, in our eagerness to participate in 
the then raging conflict. In crossing an open field, I was, with Lieutenant 
Timberlake, riding at the head of a detachment, consisting of Captain Wick¬ 
ham’s liglit-horse troop, and Captain E. B. Powell’s company of Fairfax cav¬ 
alry, when a shell was thrown at the head of the column from a rifle piece 
stationed at the distance of not less than two miles, and as, hurrying onward, 
we leaned down upon our horses, the hurtling missile passed a few inches 
above us, burying itself harmlessly in the soft earth on our left. 

On arriving near the scene of action, we took position below the Lewis 
house, under cover of an abruptly rising hill. Here we remained stationary 


TITE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


121 


for about an bour. Tlie enemy in the mean time, knowing our position, en¬ 
deavored to dislodge us with their shells, which for some time came hissing 
over our heads, and exploded harmlessly in our rear. Finally, however, they 
lowered their guns sufficiently to cause their shot to touch the crest of the 
hill, and ricochet into our very midst, killing one man, besides wounding sev- > 
eral, and maiming a number of horses. But we still retained our position 
amid the noise of battle, which now became terrific. 

From the distance came the roar of the enemy’s artillery, while near by our 
field-pieces were incessantly vomiting their showers of grape and hurling 
their small shell into the very teeth of the foe. At intervals, as regiments 
came face to face, the unmistakable rattle of the musketry told that the small- 
arms of our brave boys were doing deadly work. At times, we could hear wild 
yells and cheers which rose above the din, as our infantry rushed on to the 
charge. Then followed an ominous silence, and I could imagine the fierce but 
quiet work of steel to steel, until another cheer brought me knowledge of the 
baffled enemy. 

Meanwhile, our reinforcement^ were pouring by, and pressing with enthusi¬ 
astic cheers to the battle-field. On the other hand, many of our wounded were 
borne past us to the rear. One poor fellow was shot through the left cheek ; 
as he came past me, he smiled, and muttered with difficulty, “ Boys, they’ve 
spoilt my beauty.” He could say no more, but an expression of acute pain 
flitted across his face, and shaking his clenched fist in the direction of the foe, 
he passed on. Another came by, shot in the breast. His clothing liad been 
stripped from over his ghastly wound, and at every breath, the warm life¬ 
blood gushed from his bosom. I rode up to him, as, leaning on two compan¬ 
ions, he stopped for a moment to rest. “ My poor fellow,” said I, “ I am sorry 
to see you thus.” “ Yes! yes,” was his reply, “they’ve done for me now, but 
my father’s there yet! our army’s there yet! our cause is there yet!” and 
raising himself from the arms of his companions, his pale face lighting up like 
a sunbeam, he cried with an enthusiasm I shall never forget, “ and Liberty’s 
there yet!” But this spasmodic exertion was too much for him, a purple flood 
poured from his wound, and he swooned away. I was enthusiastic before, but 
I felt then as if I could have ridden singly and alone upon a regiment, regard¬ 
less of all but my country’s cause. 

Just then, the noble Beauregard came dashing by with his staff, and the cry 
was raised, that part of Sherman’s battery had been taken. Cheer after cheer 
went up from our squadrons. It was taken up and borne along the whole 
battle-field, until the triumphant shout seemed one grand cry of victory. At 
this auspicious moment, our infantry who had been supporting the batteries 
were ordered to rise and charge the enemy with the bayonet. With terrific 
yells, they rushed upon the Federal legions with an impetuosity which could 
not be withstood, and terror-stricken, they broke and fled like deer from the 
cry of wolves. Our men followed hard upon them, shouting, and driving their 
bayonets up to the hilt in the backs of such of the enemy as by ill luck 
chanced to be hindmost in the flight. 

At this moment, one of Gen. Beauregard’s aids rode rapidly up and spoke 
to Col. Radford, commander of our regiment of Virginia cavalry, who imme¬ 
diately turned to us and shouted, “ Men, now is our time I” It was the hap¬ 
piest moment of my life. Taking a rapid gallop, we crossed Bull Run about 
three-quarters of a mile below the Stone Bridge, and made for the rear of the 


122 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


now flying enemy. On we dashed, with the speed of the wind, our horses 
wild with excitement, leaping- fences, ditches, and fallen trees, until we came 
opposite to the house of Mrs. Spindle, which was used by the enemy as a hos¬ 
pital, and in front of which was a small cleared space, the fence which inclosed 
it running next the timber. Leaping this fence, we debouched from the woods 
with a demoniacal yell, and found ourselves on the flank of the enemy. 

The remnant of Sherman’s battery was passing at the time, and thus 
we threw ourselves between the main body of the enemy and Sherman’s 
battery, which, supported by four regiments of infantry, covered the re¬ 
treat of the Federal army. Our regiment had divided in the charge, and our 
detachment now consisted of Capt. Wickham’s cavalry, Capt. E. B. Powell’s 
troop of Fairfax cavalry, the Radford Rangers, Capt. Radford, the whole led 
by Col. Radford. 

Our onslaught was terrific. With our rifles and shot-guns, we killed forty- 
nine of the enemy the first discharge, then drawing our sabres, we dashed 
upon them, cutting them down indiscriminately. 

With several others, I rode up to the door of the hospital in which a num¬ 
ber of terrified Yankees had crowded for safety, and as they came out, we shot 
them down with our pistols. Happening at this moment to turn round, I saw 
a Yankee soldier in the act of discharging his musket at the group stationed 
around the door. Just as he fired, I wheeled my horse, and endeavored to 
ride him down, but he rolled over a fence which crossed the yard. This, I 
forced my horse to leap, and drawing my revolver, I shouted to him to stop; 
as he turned, I aimed to fire into his face, but my horse being restive, the ball 
intended for his brain, only passed through his arm, which he held over his 
head, and thence through his cap. I was about to finish him with another 
shot (for I had vowed to spare no prisoners that day ), when I chanced to look 
into his face. He was a beardless boy, evidently not more than seventeen 
years old. I could not find it in my heart to kill him, for he plead piteously ; 
so seizing him by the collar, and putting my horse at the speed, leaping the 
fence, I dragged him to our rear-guard. 

Just at this moment, I saw that the enemy had unlimbered two field-pieces, 
and were preparing to open upon us. Capt. Radford was near me, and I 
pointed to the cannon. He dashed the spurs into his horse, and shouted, 
« Charge the battery.” But only twenty of our men were near, the rest having 
charged the rear of the main body of the flying Federals. Besides this, the 
cannon were supported by several regiments of infantry. We saw our situa¬ 
tion at a glance, and determined to retreat to the enemy’s flank. We were 
very close to the battery, and as I wheeled my horse, I fired a shot from my 
revolver at the man who was aiming the piece. He reeled, grasped at the 
wheel, and fell. I had thrown myself entirely on the left side of my horse, 
my foot hanging upon the croup of the saddle, and the grape consequently 
passed over me. Capt. Radford was in advance of me, his horse very unruly, 
plunging furiously. As I rode up, he uttered a cry, and put his hand to his 
side. At this instant, we came to a fence, and my horse cleared it with 
a bound. I turned to look for Capt. Radford, but he was not visible. A 
grape-shot had entered just above the hip, and tearing through his bowels, 
passed out of his left side. He fell from his steed, which leaped the fence 
and ran off. The captain was found afterwards by some of Col. Munford’s 
cavalry. He lived till sunset, and died in great agony. By this discharge 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR, 


123 


were killed, besides Capt. R., a lieutenant, two non-commissioned officers, and 
five privates. 

Having gained the flank of the enemy, I dismounted and fired for some 
time with my rifle into the passing columns. Suddenly I found myself entirely 
alone, and remounting, I rode back until I found Col. Munford’s column 
drawn up in the woods. Not being able to find my own company, I returned 
to the pursuit. 

Kemper’s battery had dashed upon the horror-stricken foe, and opened on 
their rear, which was covered by the remainder of Sherman’s battery, includ¬ 
ing the thirty-two pound rifle-gun, known as “ Long Tom.” The havoc pro¬ 
duced was terrible. Drivers were shot from their horses, torn to pieces by 
the shells and shot. Cannon were dismounted, wheels smashed, horses 
maimed, and the road strewn with the dead. This completed the rout, and 
the passage of Cub Run was blocked by wagons and caissons being driven 
into the fords above and below the bridge, and upon the bridge itself. 

The route taken by the flying enemy was blocked with dead. I saw Yan¬ 
kees stone-dead, without a wound. They had evidently died from exhaustion 
or sheer fright. Along the route we found the carriage of Governor Sprague 
of Rhode Island, and in it his overcoat, with several baskets of champagne. 
The necks of the bottles were snapped in a trice, and we drank to our victory. 
But our delight and pride can scarcely be imagined, when we found “Long 
Tom,” whose whistling shells had been falling continually among us from 
early dawn. It was hauled back to Bull Run amid the shouts of our men, and 
particularly Kemper’s artillery boys, who acted so well their part in causing 
the Federals to abandon it. 

* * ****** The following morning, in the dark drizzling 

rain, I rode over the field of battle. It was a sorrowful and terrible spectacle 
to behold, without the stirring excitements of battle to relieve the horrors of 
the ghastly heaps of dead that strewed the field. At a distance, some por¬ 
tions of the field presented the appearance of flower-gardens, from the gay 
colors of the uniforms, turbans, &c., of the dead Zouaves. The faces of many 
of the dead men were already hideously swollen, blotched, and blackened, 
from the effects of the warm, wet atmosphere of the night. 

In a little clump of second-growth pines, a number of wounded had crawled 
for shelter. Many of our men were busy doing them offices of kindness and 
humanity. There was one New York Zouave who appeared to be dying; his 
jaws were working, and he seemed to be in great agony. I poured some wa¬ 
ter down his throat, which revived him. Fixing his eyes upon me, with a 

look of fierce hatred, he muttered, “ You d-d rebel, if I had a musket I 

would blow out your infernal soul.” Another pale youth was lying in the 
wet undergrowth, shivering in the rain, and in the cold of approaching death. 
He was looking wistfully towards a large, warm blanket spread across my 
saddle, and said in his halting, shivering breath, “ I’m so cold.” I spread the 
blanket over him, and left him to that end of his wretchedness which could 
not be far distant. 9 



124 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 






CHAPTEE Y. 

Results of the Manassas Battle in the North.—General Scott.—McClellan, “ the 
Young Napoleon.”—Energy of the Federal-Government.—The Bank Loan.—Events 
in the West.—The Missouri Campaign.— Governor Jackson’s Proclamation.—Sterling 
Price.—The Affair of Booneville.—Organization of the Missouri forces.—The Battle 
of Carthage.— General McCulloch.—The Battle of Oak Hill.— Death of General 
j^yon.^-The Confederate Troops leave Missouri.—Operations in Northern Missouri.— 
General Harris.—General Price’s march towards the Missouri.—The Affair at Dry- 
wood Creek.—The Battle of Lexington.— The Jayhawkers.—The Victory of “ the 
Five Hundred.”—General Price’s Achievements.—His Retreat and the necessity tor 

it._Operations of General Jeff. Thompson in Southeastern Missouri.—The Affair of 

Fredericktown.—General Price’s passage of the Osage River.—Secession of Missouri 
from the Federal Union.—Fremont superseded.—The Federal forces in Missouri de¬ 
moralized.—General Price at Springfield.—Review of his Campaign.— Sketch of 
General Price.— Coldness of the Government towards him. 


The Northern mind demanded a distinguished victim for its 
humiliating defeat at Manassas. The people and government 
of the North had alike flattered themselves with the expecta¬ 
tion of possessing Eichmond by midsummer ; their forces were 
said to be invincible, and their ears were not open to any re¬ 
port or suggestion of a possible disaster. On the night of the 
21st of July, the inhabitants of the Northern cities had slept 
upon the assurances of victory. It would be idle to attempt a 
description of their disappointment and consternation on the 
succeeding day. 

The Northern newspapers were forced to the acknowledg¬ 
ment of a disaster at once humiliating and terrible. They as¬ 
signed various causes for it. Among these were the non-arri¬ 
val of General Patterson and the incompetence of their general 
officers. The favorite explanation of the disaster was, how- 
ever, the premature advance of the army under General Scott’s 
direction ; although the fact was, that the advance movement 
had been undertaken from the pressure of popular clamor in the 
North. 

The clamor was now for new commanders. It came from 
the army and the people indiscriminately. The commander- 
in-chief, General Scott, was said to be impaired in his faculties 
by age, and it was urged that he should be made to yield the 


I 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


125 


command to a younger and more efficient spirit. The railing 
accusations against General Scott were made by Northern 
journals that had, before the issue of Manassas, declared him 
to be the “ Greatest Captain of the Age,” and without a rival 
among modern military chieftains. It was thought no allevia¬ 
tion of the matter that he was not advised, as his friends repre¬ 
sented, of the strength of “ the rebels.” It was his business to 
have known it, and to have calculated the result. 

General Scott cringed at the lash of popular indignation 
with a humiliation painful to behold. He was not great in 
misfortune. In a scene with President Lincoln, the incidents 
of which were related in the Federal House of Representatives 
by General Richardson, of Illinois, he declared that he had 
acted “ the coward,” in yielding to popular clamor for an ad¬ 
vance movement, and sought in this wretched and infamous 
confession the mercy of demagogues who insulted his fallen 
fortunes. 

The call for a “ younger general” to take command of the 
Federal forces was promptly responded to by the appointment 
of General G. B. McClellan to the command of the Army of 
the Potomac. The understanding on both sides of the line 
was, that General Scott was virtually superseded by the Fed¬ 
eral government, so far as the responsibility of active service 
was concerned, though he retained his nominal position and 
pay as lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of the Army 
of the United States. The unfortunate commander experienced 
the deep humiliation and disgrace of being adjudged incompe¬ 
tent by the North, whose cause he had unnaturally espoused, 
and whose armies he had sent into the field as invaders of the 
land of his birth. The retribution was righteous. No penal¬ 
ties of fortune w T ere too severe for a general who had led or 
directed an army to trample upon the graves of his sires and 
to despoil the homes of his kindred and country. 

General McClellan had been lifted into an immense popu¬ 
larity by his successes in Northwestern Virginia, in the affair 
of Rich Mountain and the pursuit of General Garnett, which 
Northern exaggeration had transformed into great victories. 
For weeks he had been the object of a “ sensation.” His name 
was displayed in New York, on placards, on banners, and in 
newspaper headings, with the phrase, “ McClellan—two vieto- 


126 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


ries in one day.” The newsj)apers gave him the title of “ the 
Young Napoleon,” and in the South the title was derisively 
perpetuated. He was only thirty-five years of age—small in 
stature, with black hair and moustaches, and a remarkable 
military precision of manner. He was a pupil of West Point, 
and had been one of the American Military Commission to the 
Crimea. When appointed major-general of volunteers by 
Governor Dennison, of Ohio, he had resigned from the army, 
and was superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, a 
dilapidated concern. There is no reason to suppose that the 
man who was appointed to the responsible and, onerous com¬ 
mand of the Army of the Potomac was any thing more than 
the creature of a feeble popular applause. 

A leading Southern newspaper had declared, on the an¬ 
nouncement of the complete and brilliant victory at Manassas, 
“ the independence of the Confederacy is secured.” There 
could not have been a greater mistake. The active and elastic 
spirit of the North was soon at work to repair its fortunes; and 
time and opportunity were given it by the South, not only to 
recover lost resources, but to invent new. The government at 
Washington disp^ed an energy which, perhaps, is the most 
remarkable phenomenon in the whole history of the war: it 
multiplied its armies; it reassured the confidence of the peo¬ 
ple ; it recovered itself from financial straits which were al¬ 
most thought to be hopeless, and while the politicians of the 
South were declaring that the Federal treasury was bankrupt, 
it negotiated a loan of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars 
from the banks of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, at a 
rate but a fraction above that of legal interest in the State of 
New York. 

While the North was thus recovering its resources on the 
frontiers of Virginia and preparing for an extension of the 
campaign, events were transpiring in the West which were 
giving extraordinary lessons of example and encouragement 
to the Southern States bordering on the Atlantic and Gulf. 
These events were taking place in Missouri. The campaign 
in that State was one of the most brilliant episodes of the war 
one of the most remarkable in history, and one of the most 
fruitful in the lessons of the almost miraculous achievements 
of a people stirred by the enthusiasm of revolution. To 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


127 


the direction of these events we must now divert our narra¬ 
tive. 


THE MISSOURI CAMPAIGN. 

The riots in St. Louis, to which reference has already been 
made, were the inaugurating scenes of the revolution in Mis¬ 
souri. The Federal government had commenced its pro¬ 
gramme of subjugation with a high hand. On the 10th of 
May, a brigade of Missouri militia, encamped under the law 
of the State for organizing and drilling the militia, at Camp 
Jackson, on the western outskirts of St. Louis, had been forced 
to surrender unconditionally on the demand of Captain (after¬ 
wards General) Lyon of the Federal Army. In the riots 
excited by the Dutch soldiery in St. Louis, numbers of citizens 
had been murdered in cold blood; a reign of terror was 
established ; and the most severe measures were taken by the 
Federal authority to keep in subjection the excitement and 
rage of the people. St. Louis was environed by a line of 
military posts; all the arms and ammunition in the city were 
seized, and the houses of citizens searched for concealed muni¬ 
tions of war. The idea of any successful resistance of Mis¬ 
souri to the Federal power was derided. “ Let her stir,” said 
the Lincolnites, “ and the lion’s paw will crush out her paltry 
existence.” 

The several weeks that elapsed between the fall of Fort 
Sumter and the early part of June were occupied by the Seces¬ 
sionists in Missouri with efforts to gain time by negotiation 
and with preparations for the contest. At length, finding 
further delay impossible, Governor Jackson issued his procla¬ 
mation, calling for fifty thousand volunteers. At the time of 
issuing this proclamation, on the 13th of June, 1861, the gov¬ 
ernor was advised of the purpose of the Federal authorities to 
send an effective force from St. Louis to Jefferson City, the 
capital of the State. He determined, therefore, to move at 
once with the State records to Booneville, situated on the south 
bank of the Missouri, eighty miles above Jefferson City. Be¬ 
fore his departure from the latter place, he had conferred upon 
Sterling Price the position of major-general of the army of Mis¬ 
souri, and had also appointed nine brigadier-generals. These 


125 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


were Generals Parsons, M. L. Clark, John B. Clark, Slack, 
Harris, Stein, Rains, McBride, and Jeff. Thompson. 

There was at the time of the issuance of this proclamation 
no military organization of any description in the State. Per 
haps, there had not been a militia muster in Missouri for twelve 
or fifteen } 7 ears, there being no law to require it. The State 
was without arms or ammunition. Such was her condition, 
when, with a noble and desperate gallantry that might have 
put to blush forever the stale and common excuse ot u help¬ 
lessness” for a cringing submission to tyranny, the State of 
Missouri determined alone and unaided to confront and resist 
the whole power of the North, and to fight it to the issue ot 
liberty or death. 

Orders were issued by General Price, at Jefferson City, to 
the several brigadiers just appointed, to organize their forces 
as rapidly as possible, and send them forward to Booneville and 
Lexington. 

On the 20th June, General Lyon and Colonel F. P. Blair, 
with seven thousand Federal troops, well drilled and well 
armed, came up the river by vessels, and debarked about five 
miles below Booneville. To oppose them there the Missouiians 
had but about eight hundred men, armed with ordinary rifles 
and shot-guns, without a piece of artillery, and with but little 
ammunition. Lyon’s command had eight pieces of cannon and 
the best improved small-arms. The Missourians were com¬ 
manded by Colonel Marmaduke, a graduate of West Point. 
Under the impression that the forces against him were incon¬ 
siderable, he determined to give them battle; but, upon ascer¬ 
taining their actual strength, after he had formed his line, he 
told his men they could not reasonably hope to defend the 
position, and ordered them to retreat. This order they refused 
to obey. They declared that they would not leave the ground 
without exchanging shots with the enemy. The men remained 
on the field, commanded by their captains and by Lieutenant- 
colonel Horace Brand. A fight ensued of an hour and a half 
or more; the result of which was the killing and wounding of 
upwards of one hundred of the enemy, and a loss of three 
Missourians killed and twenty-five or thirty wounded, several 
of whom afterwards died. u The barefoot rebel militia,” as 
they were sneeringly denominated, exhibited a stubbornness on 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


129 


the field of their first fight which greatly surprised their enemy, 
and, overpowered by his numbers, they retreated in safety, if 
not in order. 

Governor Jackson and General Price arrived at Booneville, 
from Jefferson City, on the 18th June. Immediately after his 
arrival, General Price was taken down with a violent sickness, 
which threatened a serious termination. On the 19th, he was 
placed on board a boat for Lexington, one of the points at 
which he had ordered troops to be congregated. This accounts 
for his absence from the battle of Booneville. 

A portion of the Missouri militia engaged in the action, 
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred in number, took 
up their line of march for the southwestern portion of the 
State, under the direction of Governor Jackson, accompanied 
by the heads of the State Department and by General J. B. 
Clark and General Parsons. They marched some twenty-five 
miles after the fight of the morning, in the direction of a place 
called Cole Camp, to which point it happened that General 
Lyon and Colonel Blair had sent from seven hundred to one 
thousand of their “ Home Guard,” with a view of intercept¬ 
ing the retreat of Jackson. Ascertaining this fact, Governor 
Jackson halted his forces for the night within twelve or fifteen 
miles of Camp Cole. Luckily, an expedition for their relief 
had been speedily organized south of Cole Camp, and was at 
that very moment ready to remove all obstructions in the way 
of their journey. This expedition, consisting of about three 
hundred and fifty men, was commanded by Colonel O’Kane, 
and was gotten up, in a few hours, in the neighborhood south 
of the enemy’s camp. The so-called “ Home Guards,” con¬ 
sisting almost exclusively of Germans, were under the command 
of Colonel Cook, a brother of the notorious B. F. Cook, who 
was executed at Charlestown, Virginia, in 1859, as an accom¬ 
plice of John Brown, in the Harper’s Ferry raid. Colonel 
O’Kane approached the camp of the Federals after the hour of 
midnight. They had no pickets out, except in the direction of 
Jackson’s forces, and he consequently succeeded in completely 
surprising them. They were encamped in two large barns, 
and were asleep when the attack was made upon them at day¬ 
break. In an instant, they were aroused, routed, and nearly 
annihilated; two hundred and six of them being killed, a still 


130 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



larger number wounded, and upwards of one hundred taken 
prisoners. Colonel Cook and the smaller portion of his com¬ 
mand made their escape. The Missourians lost four men killed 
and fifteen or twenty wounded. They captured three hundred 
and sixty-two muskets; thus partially supplying themselves 
with bayonets, the weapons for which they said they had a 
particular use in the war against their invaders. Of this suc¬ 
cess of the Missouri u rebels” there was never any account 
published, even in the newspapers of St. Louis. 

Having been reinforced by Col. O’Kane, Governor Jackson 
proceeded with his reinforcements to Warsaw, on the Osage 
river in Benton county, pursued by Col. Totten of the Federal 
army, with fourteen hundred men, well armed and having sev¬ 
eral pieces of artillery. Upon the receipt of erroneous infor¬ 
mation as to the strength of Jackson’s forces, derived from a 
German who escaped the destruction of Camp Cole, and per 
haps, also, from the indications of public sentiment in the 
country through which he marched, Col. Totten abandoned 
the pursuit and returned to the army under Gen. Lyon, at 
Booneville. Jackson’s forces rested at Warsaw for two days, 
after which they proceeded to Montevallo, in Yernon county, 
where they halted and remained for six days, expecting to form 
a junction at that point with another column of their forces 
that had been congregated at Lexington, and ordered by Gen. 
Price to the southwestern portion of the State. 

That column was under the command of Brigadier-generals 
Pains and Slack, and consisted of some twenty-five hundred 
men. Col. Prince, of the Federal army, having collected a 
force of four or five thousand men from Kansas, with a view of 
cutting them of*, Gen. Price ordered a retreat to some point in 
the neighborhood of Montevallo. Gen. Price, still very feeble 
from his recent severe attack of sickness, started with one hun¬ 
dred men to join his forces. His object was to draw his army 
away from the base-line of the enemy, the Missouri river, and 
to gain time for the organization of Ins army. The column 
from Lexington marched forward, without blankets or clothing 
of any kind, without wagons, without tents, and, indeed, with¬ 
out any thing usually reckoned among the comforts of an army. 
They had to rely for subsistence on the country through which 
they passed—a friendly country it is true, but they had but 


t 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


131 


little time to partake of hospitalities on their march, being 
closely pursued by the enemy. On the night of the 3d of July, 
the column from Lexington formed a junction with Jackson’s 
forces ih Cedar county. 

That night, under orders from Governor Jackson, all the men 
belonging to the districts of brigadier-generals then present, 
reported respectively to their appropriate brigadier-generals 
for the purpose of being organized into companies, battalions, 
regiments, brigades, and divisions. The result was, that about 
two thousand reported to Brig.-gen. Rains, six hundred to 
Brig.-gen. Slack, and about five hundred each to Brigadier- 
generals J. B. Clark and Parsons; making an entire force of 
about three thousand six hundred men. Some five or six hun¬ 
dred of the number were, however, entirely unarmed; and the 
common rifle and the shot-gun constituted the weapons of the 
armed men, with the exception of the comparatively few who 
carried the muskets taken in the fight at Cole Camp. The 
army was organized by 12 o’clock, the 4th of July, and in one 
hour thereafter, it took up the line of march for the southwest. 

Before leaving, Governor Jackson received intelligence that 
he was pursued by Gen. Lyon, coming down from a northeast¬ 
erly direction, and by Lane and Sturgis from the northwest, 
their supposed object being to form a junction in his rear, with 
a force sufficiently large to crush him. He marched his com¬ 
mand a distance of twenty-three miles by nine o’clock on the 
evening of the 4th, at which hour he stopped for the night. Be¬ 
fore the next morning, he received authentic intelligence that 
a column of men, three thousand in number, had been sent out 
from St. Louis on the southwestern branch of the Pacific rail¬ 
road for Rolla, under the command of Gen. Sigel, and that they 
had arrived at the town of Carthage, immediately in his front, 
thus threatening him with battle in the course of a few hours. 
Such was the situation of the undisciplined, badly-armed Mis¬ 
souri State troops, on the morning of the 5th of July; a large 
Federal force in their rear, pressing upon them, while Sigel in 
front intercepted their passage. But they were cheerful and 
buoyant in spirit, notwithstanding the perilous position in which 
they were placed. They resumed their march at two o’clock on 
the morning of the 5th, and proceeded, without halting, a dis¬ 
tance of ten miles. At 10 o’clock a. m., they approached a 


% 


132 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


creek within a mile and a half of the enemy, whose forces were 
in line of battle under Sigel, in the open prairie, upon the brow 
of a hill, and in three detachments, numbering nearly three 
thousand men. 


THE BATTLE OF CARTHAGE. 

The Missourians arrived on their first important battle-field 
witlj a spirit undiminished by the toil of their march and their 
sufferings. The men were suffering terribly for water, but 
could find none, the enemy being between them and the creek. 
The line of battle was formed with about twelve hundred men as 
infantry, commanded by Brigadier-generals J. B. Clark, Par¬ 
sons, and Slack, and the remainder acting as cavalry under Brig¬ 
adier-general Rains, the whole under the command of Govern¬ 
or Jackson. The infantry were formed, and placed in line of 
battle six hundred yards from the enemy, on the brow of the 
hill fronting his line. The cavalry deployed to the right and 
left, with a view of charging and attacking the enemy on his 
right and left wing, while the infantry were to advance from 
the front. Sigel had eight pieces of cannon. The Missourians 
had a few old pieces, but nothing to charge them with. While 
their cavalry were deploying to the right and left, Sigel’s bat¬ 
teries opened upon their line with grape, canister, shell, and 
round-shot. The cannon of the Missourians replied as best 
they could. They were loaded with trace-chains, bits of iron, 
rocks, &c. It was difficult to get their cavalry up to the posi¬ 
tion agreed upon as the one from which a general charge should 
be commenced upon the foe. Sigel would turn his batteries 
upon them whenever they came in striking distance, causing 
a stampede among the horses, and subjecting the troops to a 
galling fire. This continued to be the case for an hour and 
thirty-five minutes. Owing to the difficulty of bringing the 
horses into position, the brigadier-generals ordered the infantry 
to charge the enemy, the cavalry to come up at the same time 
in supporting distance. They advanced in double-quick, with 
a shout, when the enemy retreated across Bear Creek, a wide 
and deep stream, and then destroyed the bridge over which 
they crossed. Sigel’s forces retreated along the bank of the 
creek a distance of a mile or a mile and a half, and formed 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


133 


behind a skirt of timber. The Missourians had to cross an 
open held, exposed to a raking fire, before they could reach the 
corner of the woods, beyond which the enemy had formed. A 
number of the cavalry dismounted and acted with the infantry, 
thus bringing into active use nearly all the small-arms brought 
upon the field. They rushed to the skirt of timber, and opened 
vigorously upon the enemy across the stream, who returned 
the fire with great spirit. For the space of an hour, the fire 
on each side was incessant and fierce. The Missourians threw 
a quantity of dead timber into the stream, and commenced 
crossing over in large numbers, when the euemy again aban¬ 
doned his position and started in the direction of Carthage, 
eight miles distant. A running fight was kept up all the way 
to Carthage, Sigel and his forces being closely pursued by the 
men whom they had expected to capture without a fight. At 
Carthage, the enemy again made a stand, forming an ambus¬ 
cade behind houses, wood-piles, and fences. After a severe en¬ 
gagement there of some forty minutes, he retreated under cover 
of "night in the direction of Rolla. He was pursued some 
three or four miles, till near nine o’clock, when the Missourians 
were called back and ordered to collect their wounded. They 
camped at Carthage that night (July 5), on the same ground 
that Sigel had occupied two nights before. The little army had 
done a brilliant day’s work. They had fought an enemy from 
10 A. m. to 9 P. M., killing and wounding a considerable number 
of his men, and driving him twelve miles on the route of his 
retreat. They afterwards ascertained that he continued to 
march all night, and did not halt till eleven o’clock the next 
day, nearly thirty miles from Carthage. The casualties of the 
day cannot be given with accuracy. The Missourians lost be¬ 
tween forty and fifty killed, and from one hundred and twen¬ 
ty-five to one hundred and fifty wounded. The loss of the en¬ 
emy was estimated at from one hundred and fifty to two hun¬ 
dred killed, and from three hundred to four hundred wounded— 
his killed and wounded being scattered over a space of upwards 
of ten miles. The Missourians captured several hundred, mus¬ 
kets, which were given to their unarmed soldiers.. The victory 
of Caithage had an inspiriting effect upon the Missourians, and 
taught the enemy a lesson of humility which he. did not soon 
forget. It awakened the Federal commanders in Missouri to 


134 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


a sense of the magnitude of the work before them. When 
Sigel first got sight of the forces drawn up against him, he 
assured his men that there would be no serious conflict. He 
said they were coming into line like a worm-fence, and that a 
few grape, canister, and shell thrown into their midst, would 
throw them into confusion, and put them to flight. This ac¬ 
complished, he would charge them with his cavalry and take 
them prisoners, one and all. But after carefully observing 
their movements for a time, in the heat of the action, he changed 
his tone. “ Great God,” he exclaimed, “ was the like ever 
seen! Kaw recruits, unacquainted with war, standing their 
ground like veterans, hurling defiance at every discharge of 
the batteries against them, and cheering their own batteries 
whenever discharged. Such material, properly worked up, 
would constitute the best troops in the world.” Such was the 
testimony of Gen. Sigel, who bears the reputation of one of 
the most skilful and accomplished officers in the Federal ser¬ 
vice. 

The next day, July 6th, General Price arrived at Carthage, 
accompanied by Brigadier-general McCulloch of the Confed¬ 
erate army, and Major-general Pierce of the Arkansas State 
forces, with a force of nearly two thousand men. These im¬ 
portant arrivals were hailed with joy by the Missourians in 
camp. They were happy to see their beloved general so far 
restored to health as to be able to take command; and the 
presence of the gallant Generals McCulloch and Pierce with 
an effective force gave them an assurance, not to be mistaken, 
of the friendly feeling and intention of the Confederate govern¬ 
ment towards the State of Missouri. 

On the 7th, the forces at Carthage, under their respective 
commands, took up the line of march for Cowskin Prairie, in 
McDonald county, near the Indian nation. It turned out that 
Lyon, Sturgis, Sweeny, and Sigel, instead of pursuing their 
foe, determined to form a junction at Springfield. The forces 
of Price and McCulloch remained at Cowskin Prairie for sev¬ 
eral days, organizing for the work before them. General Price 
received considerable reinforcements; making the whole nu¬ 
merical strength of his command about ten thousand. More 
than one half of the number, however, were entirely unarmed. 
Price, McCulloch, and Pierce decided to march upon Spring- 


THE FIE ST YEAE OF THE WAE. 


135 


field, and attack the enemy where he had taken his position in 
force. To that end, their forces were concentrated at Cassville, 
in Barry county, according to orders, and from that point they 
proceeded in the direction of Springfield, ninety miles distant, 
General McCulloch leading the advance. 

Upon his arrival at Crane Creek, General McCulloch was 
informed by his pickets that the Federals had left Springfield, 
and were advancing upon him in large force, their advanced 
guard being then encamped within seven miles of him. For 
several days there was considerable skirmishing between the 
pickets of the two armies in that locality. In consequence of 
information of the immense superiority of the enemy’s force, 
General McCulloch, after consultation with the general officers, 
determined to make a retrograde movement. He regarded the 
unarmed men as incumbrances, and thought the unorganized 
and undisciplined condition of both wings of the army sug¬ 
gested the wisdom of avoiding battle with the disciplined 
enemy upon his own ground, and in greatly superior num¬ 
bers. 

General Price, however, entertained a different opinion of 
the strength of the enemy. He favored an immediate ad¬ 
vance. This policy being sustained by his officers, General 
Price requested McCulloch to loan a number of arms from his 
command for the use of such of the Missouri soldiers as were 
unarmed, believing that, with the force at his command, he 
could whip the enemy. General McCulloch declined to com¬ 
ply with the request, being governed, no doubt, by the same 
reasons which had induced him to decline the responsibility of 
ordering an advance of the whole command. 

On the evening of the day upon which this consultation 
occurred, General McCulloch received a general order from 
General Polk, commander of the Southwestern division of the 
Confederate army, to advance upon the enemy in Missouri. 
He immediately held another consultation with the officers of 
the two divisions, exhibited the order he had received, and 
offered to march at once upon Springfield, upon condition that 
he should have the chief command of the army. General 
Price replied, that he was not fighting for distinction, but for 
the defence of the liberties of his countrymen, and that it 
mattered but little what position he occupied. He said that he 


136 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


was ready to surrender not only the command, but liis life as 
a sacrifice to the cause. He accordingly did not hesitate, with 
a magnanimity of which history presents but few examples in 
military leaders, to turn over the command to General McCul¬ 
loch, and to take a subordinate position in a contest in which, 
from the first, he was assured of victory. 

On taking command, General McCulloch issued a general 
order, that all the unarmed men should remain in camp, and 
all those furnished with arms should get their guns in condition 
for service, provide themselves with fifty rounds of ammunition, 
and get in readiness to take up the line of march by twelve 
o’clock at night. The army was divided into three columns : 
the first commanded by General McCulloch, the second by 
General Pierce, and the third by General Price. They took 
up the line of march at the hour named, leaving the baggage 
train behind, and proceeded in the direction of Springfield. 
The troops were in fine condition and in excellent spirits, ex¬ 
pecting to find the enemy posted about eight miles from their 
camp, on the Springfield road, where the natural defences are 
very strong, being a series of eminences on either side of the 
road. They arrived at that locality about sunrise, carefully 
approached it, and ascertained that the enemy had retired the 
previous afternoon. They followed in pursuit that day a dis¬ 
tance of twenty-two miles, regardless of dust and heat; twelve 
miles of the distance without a drop of water—the troops hav¬ 
ing no canteens. 

The weary army encamped on the night of the 8tli at Big 
Spring, one mile and a half from Wilson’s Creek, and ten 
miles and a half south of Springfield. Their baggage trains 
having been left behind, and their beef cattle also, the troops 
had not eaten any thing for twenty-four hours, and had been 
supplied with only half rations for ten days previous. In this 
exigency, they satisfied the cravings of hunger by eating green 
corn, without a particle of salt or a mouthful of meat. The 
wardrobe of the soldiers on that night was thus humorously 
described by one of the number: “ We had not a blanket, not 
a tent, nor any clothes, except the few we had on our backs, 
and four-fifths of us were barefooted. Billy Barlow’s dress at 
a circus would be decent in comparison with that of almost 
any one, from the major-general down to the humblest private.” 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


137 


On the next day, the army moved to Wilson’s Creek, and 
there took up camp, that they might be convenient to several 
large fields from which they could supply themselves with 
green corn, which, for two days, constituted their only repast. 

Orders were issued by General McCulloch to the troops to 
get ready to take up the line of march to Springfield by nine 
o’clock p. m., with a view of attacking the enemy at four dif¬ 
ferent points at daybreak the next morning. His effective force, 
as stated by himself, was five thousand three hundred infantry, 
fifteen pieces of artillery, and six thousand horsemen, armed 
with flint-lock muskets, rifles, and shot-guns. 

After receiving the order to march, the troops satisfied their 
hunger, prepared their guns and ammunition, and got up a 
dance before every camp-fire. When nine o’clock came, in 
consequence of the threatening appearance of the weather, and 
the want of cartridge-boxes to protect the ammunition of the 
men, the order to march was countermanded, the commanding 
general hoping to be able to move early the next morning. 
The dance before the camp-fires was resumed and kept up 
until a late hour. 


THE BATTLE OF OAK HILL. 

The next morning, the 10th of August, before sunrise, the 
troops were attacked by the enemy, who had succeeded in 
gaining the position he desired. General Lyon attacked them 
on their left, and General Sigel on their right and in their 
rear. From each of these points batteries opened upon them. 
General McCulloch’s command was soon ready. The Mis¬ 
sourians, under Brigadier generals Slack, Clark, McBride, 
Parsons, and Bains, were nearest the position taken by Gen¬ 
eral Lyon with his main force. General Price ordered them to 
move their artillery and infantry rapidly forward. Advancing 
a few hundred yards, he came upon the main body of the 
enemy on the left, commanded b} General Lyon in person 
The infantry and artillery, which General Price had ordered 
to follow him, came up to the number of upwards of two thou¬ 
sand, and opened upon the enemy a brisk and well-directed 
fire. Woodruff’s battery opened to that of the enemy under 
Captain Totten, and a constant cannonading was kept up be- 


138 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


tween these batteries during the action. Hebert’s regiment of 
Louisiana volunteers and McIntosh’s regiment of Arkansas 
mounted riflemen were ordered to the front, and, after passing 
the battery, turned to the left, and soon engaged the enemy 
with the regiments deployed. Colonel McIntosh dismounted 
his regiment, and the two marched up abreast to the fence 
around a large corn-field, where they met the left of the 
enemy already posted. A terrible conflict of small-arms took 
place here. Despite the galling fire poured upon these two 
regiments, they leaped over the fence, and, gallantly led by 
their colonels, drove the enemy before them back upon the 
main body. During this time, the Missourians, under General 
Price, were nobly sustaining themselves in the centre, and 
were hotly engaged on the sides of the height upon which 
the enemy was posted. Some distance on the right, General 
Sigel had opened his battery upon Churchill’s and Green’s 
regiments, and had gradually made his way to the Springfield 
road, upon each side of which the Confederates were en 
camped, and had established their battery in a strong position. 
General McCulloch at once took two companies of the Louisi¬ 
ana regiment which were nearest to him at the time, and 
marched them rapidly from the front and right to the rear, 
with orders to Colonel McIntosh to bring up the remainder. 
When they arrived near the enemy’s battery, they found 
that Reid’s battery had opened upon it, and that it was 
already in confusion. Advantage was taken of this, and soon 
the Louisianians gallantly charged upon the guns and swept 
the cannoneers away. Five guns were here taken, and Sigel’s 
forces completely routed. They commenced a rapid retreat 
with a single gun, pursued by some companies of the Texas 
regiment and a portion of Colonel Major’s Missouri regiment 
of cavalry. In the pursuit, many of the enemy were killed 
and his last gun captured. Having cleared their right and 
rear, it became necessary for the Confederate forces to direct 
all their attention to the centre, where General Lyon was 
pressing upon the Missourians with all his strength. To this 
point, McIntosh’s regiment under Lieutenant-colonel Embry, 
and Churchill’s regiment on foot, Gratiot’s regiment, and 
McRae’s battalion, were sent to their aid. A terrible fire of 
musketry was now kept up along the whole line of the hill 


THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


139 


uf m which tlie enemy was posted. Masses of infantry fell 
back and again rushed forward. Tlie summit of the hill was 
covered with the dead and the wounded. Both sides were fight 
ing with desperation for the field. Carroll’s and Green’s regi¬ 
ments, led gallantly by Captain Bradfute, charged Totten’s 
battery; but the whole strength of the enemy were immedi¬ 
ately in the rear, and a deadly fire was opened upon them. 
At this critical moment, when the fortunes of the day seemed 
to be at the turning-point, two regiments of General Pierced 
brigade were ordered to march from their position, as reserves,, 
to support the centre. Reid’s battery was also ordered to> 
move forward, and the Louisiana regiment was again called 
into action on the left of it. The battle then became general, 
and probably, says General McCulloch, in his official report, 
“ no two opposing forces ever fought with greater desperation ; 
inch by inch the enemy gave way, and were driven from their 
position. Totten’s battery fell back—Missourians, Arkansans, 
Louisianians, and Texans pushed forward—the incessant roll 
of musketry w^as deafening, and the balls fell thick as hail¬ 
stones ; but still our gallant Southerners pushed onward, and, 
with one wild yell, broke upon the enemy, pushing them back,, 
and strewing the ground with their dead. Nothing could with¬ 
stand the impetuosity of our final charge. The enemy fled, and 
could not again be rallied.” 

Thus ended the battle of Oak Hill, or of Wilson’s Creek, as 
Gen. Sigel called it in his official report to the Federal author¬ 
ities. It lasted about six hours. The force of the enemy was- 
stated at from nine to ten thousand, and consisted for the most 
part of well-disciplined, well-armed troops, a large portion of 
them belonging to the old United States army. They were not 
prepared for the signal defeat which they suffered. Their loss* 
was supposed to be about two thousand in killed, wounded, and, 
prisoners. They also lost six pieces of artillery, several hun¬ 
dred stand of small-arms, and several of their standards. Ma¬ 
jor-general Lyon, their chief-in-command, was killed, and many 
of their officers were wounded—some of them high in rank. 
Gen. McCulloch, in his official report, stated the entire loss on 
the part of his command at two hundred and sixty-five killed, 
eight hundred wounded, and thirty missing. Of these, the 
Missourians, according to Gen. Price’s report, lost one hun- 


140 - 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


dred and fifty-six killed, and five hundred and seventeen 
wounded. 

The victory was won by the determined valor of each divi 
sion of the army. The troops from Texas, Arkansas, and Loui 
siana bore themselves with a gallantry characteristic of their 
respective States. The Missouri troops were mostly undisci¬ 
plined, but they had fought with the most desperate valor, 
never failing to advance when ordered. Repeatedly, during 
the action, they retired from their position, and then returned 
to it with increased energy and enthusiasm—a feat rarely per¬ 
formed by undisciplined troops. The efficiency of the double- 
barrel shot-gun and the walnut-stock rifle, was abundantly 
demonstrated—these being the only arms used by the Mis¬ 
sourians in this fight, with the exception of the four hundred 
muskets captured from the enemy on the two occasions already 
named. 

Gen. Lyon, at the head of his regulars, was killed in an at¬ 
tempt to turn the wing mainly defended by the arms of the 
Missourians. He received two small rifle-balls or buckshot in 
the heart, the one just above the left nipple, the other immedi¬ 
ately below it. He had been previously wounded in the leg. 
His surgeon came in for his body, under a flag of truce, after 
the close of the battle, and Gen. Price sent it in his own wagon. 
But the enemy, in his flight, left the body unshrouded in Spring- 
field. The next morning, August 11th, Lieut.-col. Gustav us 
Elgin and Col. R. II. Mercer, two of the members of Brigadier- 
general Clark’s staff, caused the body to be properly prepared 
for burial. He was temporarily interred at Springfield, in a 
metallic coffin procured by Mrs. Phelps, wife of John S. Phelps, 
a former member of the Federal Congress from that district, 
and now an officer in the Lincoln army. A few days after¬ 
wards, the body was disinterred and sent to St. Louis, to await 
the order of his relatives in Connecticut. 

The death of Gen. Lyon was a serious loss to the Federals in 
Missouri. He was an able and dangerous man—a man of the 
times, who appreciated the force of audacity and quick decision 
in a revolutionary war. To military education and talents, he 
united a rare energy and promptitude. Ho doubts or scruples 
unsettled his mind. A Connecticut Yankee, without a trace 
of chivalric feeling or personal sensibility—one of those who 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


141 


submit to insult with indifference, yet are brave on the field_ 

he was this exception to the politics of the late regular army 
of the United States, that he was an unmitigated, undisguised, 
and fanatical Abolitionist. 

Shortly after the battle of Oak Hill, the Confederate army 
returned to the frontier of Arkansas, Generals McCulloch and 
Price having failed to agree upon the plan of campaign in 
Missouri. 

In northern Missouri, the bold and active demonstrations of 
Gen. Harris had made an important diversion of the enemy in 
favor of Gen. Price. These demonstrations had been so suc¬ 
cessfully made, that they diverted eight thousand men from 
the support of Gen. Lyon, and held them north of the river 
until after the battle of Oak Hill, thus making an important 
contribution to the glorious issue of that contest. 

The history of the war presents no instance of a more heroic 
determination of a people to accomplish their freedom, than 
that exliibted by the people of northern Missouri. Occupying 
that portion of the State immediately contiguous to the Federal 
States of Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois, penetrated by two lines of 
railroads, intersecting at right angles, dividing the country 
north and south, east and west—which lines of railroads were 
seized and occupied by the enemy, even before the commence¬ 
ment of hostilities ; washed on every side by large, navigable 
rivers in possession of the enemy; exposed at every point to 
the inroads of almost countless Federal hosts, the brave people 
of northern Missouri, without preparation or organization, did 
not hesitate to meet the alternative of war, in the face of a foe 
confident in his numbers and resources. 

On the 21st June, 1861, a special messenger from Governor 
Jackson overtook, at Paris, Monroe county, Thomas A. Harris, 
who was then en route as a private soldier to the rendezvous 
at Booneville. The messenger was the bearer of a commission 
by which Thomas A. Harris was constituted Brigadier-general 
of the Missouri State Guard, and assigned to the duty of or¬ 
ganizing the forces for the defence of that portion of the State 
north of the Missouri river. The commission was accompanied 
by orders from Gen. Sterling Price. At the date of the deliv¬ 
ery of the commission and orders, the affair at Booneville had 
transpired, and the governor and Gen. Price, with such of the' 


142 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


forces as had been hastily collected, were, as already stated, in 
full retreat before the enemy in the direction of southwestern 
Missouri. 

Gen. Harris was without any organized force whatever; 
without military supplies of any kind; without money, or any 
authorized agent to pledge the credit of the State. He com¬ 
menced recruiting an army in the face of the enemy. At a 
public meeting, called by him, he delivered a stirring and 
patriotic address, caused the oath of allegiance to the South to 
be administered to himself in the most public and impiessive 
manner, and, in turn, administered the same oath to fifty-three 
men, and organized them into a company, directing them to 
return to their homes, collect their private arms, and join him 
without delay. When we consider that this bold action was 
within three hours’ march of an enemy in force, and that it in¬ 
vited his bitter resentment, we can rightly appreciate the he¬ 
roism and self-sacrificing patriotism of the participators. 

A false report of the approach of the enemy caused the 
evacuation of the town of Paris, where quite a number of un¬ 
armed troops had assembled. General Harris retired into a 
stronghold in the knobs of Salt Eiver. He was a brigadier- 
general, with a command of three men , and a few officers 
whom he had appointed upon his staff. Here, without 
blankets, tents, or any kind of army equipments, he com¬ 
menced the organization of a guerrilla force, which was des¬ 
tined to render important service in the progress of the war in 
Missouri. 

Gen. Harris adopted the policy of secretly organizing his 
force, the necessity for such secrecy being constantly induced 
by the continued presence and close proximity of the ene¬ 
my. The fact, however, that Gen. Lyon was moving to the 
southwest in pursuit of Gen. Price, caused him to attempt a 
diversion, which was successful, as has been stated, in holding 
a large Federal force north of the Missouri river. Although 
the active duties of a guerrilla campaign necessarily involved 
a delay in organization, yet Gen. Harris was successful in rais¬ 
ing a force of two thousand seven hundred and thirty men in 
the very face of the enemy, and in crossing them over the 
river; and after a march of sixty-two miles, in twenty-eight 
hours, he united his command with Gen. Price in time to par- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


143 


ticipate in the memorable battle of Lexington. To follow Gen. 
Price’s command, to that battle-field we must now turn. 

Late in August, Gen. Price, abandoned by the Confederate 
forces, took up his line of march for the Missouri river, with 
an armed force of about four thousand five hundred men, and 
seven pieces of cannon. He continued to receive reinforce¬ 
ments from the north side of the Missouri river. 

Hearing that the notorious trio of Abolition bandits, Jim 
Lane, Montgomery, and Jenison, were at Fort Scott, with a ma¬ 
rauding force of several thousand, and not desiring them to 
get into his rear, he detoured to the left from his course to the 
Missouri river, marching directly to Fort Scott for the purpose 
of driving them up the river. On the 7th of September, he 
met with Lane about fifteen miles east of Fort Scott, at a 
stream called Drywood, where an engagement ensued which 
lasted for an hour and a half, resulting in the complete rout 
of the enemy. Gen. Price then sent on a detachment to Fort 
Scott, and found that the enemy had evacuated the place. He 
continued his march in the direction of Lexington, where there 
was a Federal army strongly intrenched, under the command 
of Col. Mulligan. 

Gen. Fremont, who had been appointed by the Federal gov¬ 
ernment to take command in the Missouri department, had in¬ 
augurated the campaign with a brutality towards his enemy 
a selfish splendor in his camp, and a despotism and corruption 
more characteristic of an Eastern satrap than an American 
commander in the nineteenth century. He had published a 
proclamation absolutely confiscating the estates and slave 
property of “ rebels,” which measure of brutality was vastly 
pleasing to the Abolitionists of the North, who recognized the 
extinction of negro slavery in the South as the essential object 
of the war, but was not entirely agreeable to the^government at 
Washington, which was not quite ready to declare the extrem¬ 
ity to which it proposed to prosecute the war. 

On the 10th of September, just as General Price was about 
to encamp with his forces for the day, he learned that a de¬ 
tachment of Federal troops were marching from Lexington to 
Warrensburg to seize the funds of the bank in that place, and 
to arrest and plunder the citizens of Johnson county, in ac¬ 
cordance with General Fremont’s proclamation and instruc- 


144 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


tions. Although his men were greatly fatigued by several 
days’ continuous and rapid marching, General Price deter¬ 
mined to press forward, so as to surprise the enemy, if pos¬ 
sible, at Warrensburg. After resting a few hours, he resumed 
his march at sunset, and continued it without intermission till 
two o’clock in the morning, when it became evident that the 
infantry, very few of whom had eaten any thing for twenty- 
four hours, could march no further. He then halted them, 
and went forward with the greater portion of his mounted men, 
till he came, about daybreak, within view of Warrensburg, 
where he ascertained that the enemy had hastily fled about 
midnight, burning the bridges behind him. A heavy rain 
commenced about the same time. This circumstance, coupled 
with the fact that his men had been fasting for more than 
twenty-four hours, constrained General Price to abandon the 
pursuit of the enemy that day. His infantry and artillery 
having come up, he encamped at Warrensburg, where the 
citizens vied with each other in feeding his almost famished 
soldiers. 

A violent storm delayed the march next morning till the 
hour of ten o’clock. General Price then pushed rapidly for¬ 
ward, still hoping to overtake the enemy. Finding it impos¬ 
sible to do this with his infantry, he again ordered a detach¬ 
ment of mounted men to move forward, and placing himself at 
their head, continued the pursuit to within two and a half 
miles of Lexington, where he halted for the night, having 
learned that the enemy’s forces had all gone within the city. 

THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 

About daybreak the next morning, a sharp skirmish took 
place between the Missouri pickets and the enemy’s outposts. 
A general action was threatened, but General Price, being un¬ 
willing to risk an engagement when a short delay would make 
success, in his estimation, perfectly certain, fell back two or 
three miles, and awaited the arrival of his infantry and cavalry. 
These having come up, he advanced upon the town, driving in 
the Federal pickets, until he came within a short distance of 
the city. Here the enemy’s forces attempted to make a stand, 
but they were speedily driven from every position, and com- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


145 


pelled to take slielter within their intrencliments. The enemy 
having strongly fortified the college building, the Missourians 
took their position within easy range of it, and opened a brisk 
fire from Bledsoe’s and Parsons’ batteries. Finding, after 
sunset, that his ammunition, the most of which had been left 
behind in the march from Springfield, was nearly exhausted, 
and that his men, most of whom had not eaten any thing in 
thirty-six hours, required rest and food, General Price with¬ 
drew to the Fair Ground, and encamped there. Flis ammuni¬ 
tion wagons having been at last brought up, and large rein¬ 
forcements having come in, he again moved into town on the 
18 tli, and commenced the final attack upon the enemy’s works. 
Brigadier-general Rains’ division occupied a strong position 
on the east and northeast of the fortifications, from which 
position an effective cannonading was kept up on the enemy 
by Bledsoe’s battery, and another battery commanded by Capt. 
Churchill Clark, of St. Louis. General Parsons took his posi¬ 
tion southwest of the works. Skirmishers and sharp-shooters 
were sent forward from both of these divisions to harass and 
fatigue the enemy, and cut them off From water on the north, 
east, and south of the college, and did great service in the ac¬ 
complishment of the purposes for which they were detached. 
Colonel Congreve Jackson’s division, and a part of General 
Stein’s, were posted near General Rains and General Parsons 
as a reserve. 

Shortly after entering the city on the 18 th, Colonel Rives, 
who commanded the fourth division in the absence of General 
Slack, led his regiment and Colonel Fluglies’ along the river 
bank to a point immediately beneath and west of the fortifica¬ 
tions, General McBride’s command and a portion of General 
Harris’s having been ordered to reinforce him. Colonel Rives, 
in order to cut off the enemy’s means of escape, proceeded 
down the bank of the river to capture a steamboat which was 
lying immediately under their guns. Just at this moment, a 
heavy fire was opened upon him from a large dwelling-house, 
known as Anderson’s house, on the summit of the bluff, which 
the enemy was occupying as a hospital, and from which a white 
flag was flying. Several companies of General Harris’s com¬ 
mand and the soldiers of the fourth division, who had won 
much distinction in previous battles, immediately rushed upon 


146 


THE FIRs>. YEAR OF THE WAR. 


and took the place. The impoitant position thus secured was 
within one hundred and twenty-five yards of the enemy’s in- 
trenchments. A company from Colonel Hughes’ regimen 
then took possession of the boats, one of which was freighted 
with valuable stores. General McBride’s and General Harris’s 
divisions meanwhile stormed and occupied the bluffs immedi¬ 
ately north of Anderson’s house. The position of these heights 
enabled the assailants to harass the enemy so greatly, that, 
resolving to regain them, he made upon the house a successful 
assault, and one, said General Price, which would have been 
honorable to him had it not been accompanied by an act of 
savage barbarity, the cold-blooded and cowardly murder of 
three defenceless men who had laid down their arms, and sur¬ 
rendered themselves as prisoners. The position thus retaken 
by the enemy was soon regained by the brave men who had 
been driven from it, and was thenceforward held by them to 
the very end of the contest. 

The heights on the left of Anderson’s house were fortified 
by our troops with such means as were at their command. On 
the morning of the 20th/General Price caused a number of 
hemp bales to be transported to the river heights, where mov¬ 
able breastworks were speedily constructed out of them 0 The 
demonstrations of the artillery, and particularly the continued 
advance of the hempen breastworks, attracted the attention 
and excited the alarm of the enemy, who made many daring 
attempts to drive back the assailants. They were, however, 
repulsed in every instance by the unflinching courage and 
fixed determination of men fighting for their homes. The 
ksnpen breastworks, said General Price, were as efficient as 
the cotton bales at Hew Orleans. In these severe encounters, 
McBride’s and Slack’s divisions, and Colonel Martin Green 
and his command, and Colonel Boyd and Major Winston and 
their commands, were warmly commended for their gallant 
conduct. 

About two o’clock in the afternoon of the 20th, and after 
fifty-two hours of continuous fighting, a white flag was dis¬ 
played by the enemy on that part of his works nearest to Col. 
Green’s position, and shortly afterwards another was displayed 
opposite to Colonel Kives’ position. General Price immedi 
ately ordered a cessation of all firing, and sent forward his 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


147 


staff officers to ascertain the object of the flag and to open 
negotiations with the enemy, if such should be his desire. It 
was agreed that the Federal forces should lay down their arms 
and surrender themselves prisoners of war. 

The entire loss of the Missourians in this series of battles 
was but twenty-five killed and seventy-two wounded. The 
enemy’s loss was considerably larger, but cannot be stated 
here with accuracy. The visible fruits of the victory to the 
Missourians were great: about three thousand five hundred 
prisoners—among whom were Cols. Mulligan, Marshall, Pea¬ 
body, White, Grover, Major Yan Horn, and one hundred and 
eighteen other commissioned officers; five pieces of artillery 
and two mortars; over three thousand stand of infantry arms, 
a large number of sabres, about seven hundred and fifty horses, 
many sets of cavalry equipments, wagons, teams, some ammu¬ 
nition, more than $100,000 worth of commissary stores, and a 
large amount of other property. In addition to all this, General 
Price obtained the restoration of the great seal of the State, of 
the public records, and about $900,000 of which the bank at 
Lexington had been robbed, in accordance with Fremont’s in¬ 
structions. General Price caused the money to be returned at 
once to the bank. 

In his official report of the battle of Lexington, Genera. 
Price paid a high compliment to the command that had 
achieved such rich and substantial fruits of victory. “This 
victory,” he wrote, “ has demonstrated the fitness of our citizen 
soldiery for the tedious operations of a siege, as well as for a 
dashing charge. They lay for fifty-two hours in the open air, 
without tents or covering, regardless of the sun and rain, and 
in the very presence of a watchful and desperate foe, manfully 
repelling every assault and patiently awaiting my orders to storm 
the fortifications. Ho general ever commanded a braver o 
better army. It is composed of the best blood and bravest 
men of Missouri.” 

During the siege, quite a number of citizens came in from 
the neighboring country, and fought, as they expressed it, “ on 
their own hooks.” A participator in the battle tells an anecdote 
of an old man, about sixty years of age, who came up daily 
from his farm, with his walnut-stock rifle and a basket of pro¬ 
visions, and went to work just as if he were engaged in hauling 


148 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


rails or some other necessary labor of his farm. He took his 
position behind a large stump upon the descent of the hill on 
which the fortification was constructed, where he fired with 
deadly aim during each day of the siege. 

When the surrender was made, and the forces under Colonel 
Mulligan stacked their arms, General Price ordered that they 
were not to he insulted by word or act, assigning as the reason 
therefor, that they had fought like brave men, and were enti¬ 
tled to be treated as such. When Colonel Mulligan surren¬ 
dered his sword, General Price asked him for the scabbard. 
Mulligan replied that he had thrown it away. The general, 
upon receiving his sword, returned it to him, saying, he dis¬ 
liked to see a man of his valor without a sword. Mulligan re¬ 
fused to be paroled, upon the ground that his government did 
not acknowledge the Missourians as belligerents. While await¬ 
ing his exchange, Colonel Mulligan and his wife became the 
guests of General Price, the general surrendering to them his 
carriage, and treating them with the most civil and obliging 
hospitality. The captive colonel and his lady were treated by 
all the officers and soldiers of the Missouri army with a courtesy 
and kindness which they seemed to appreciate. 

After the first day’s conflict at Lexington, while General 
Price was encamped at the Fair Grounds near the city, await¬ 
ing reinforcements and preparing the renewal of the attack, an 
episode occurred at some distance from the city, in which the 
Missourians again had the satisfaction of inflicting a terrible 
chastisement upon the bandits of the Lane and Montgomery 
organization. 

Gen. Price was informed that four thousand men under Lane 
and Montgomery were advancing from the direction of St. 
Joseph, on the north side of the Missouri river, and Gen. Stur¬ 
gis, with fifteen hundred cavalry, was also advancing from the 
Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, for the purpose of relieving 
the forces under Mulligan. About twenty-five hundred Mis¬ 
sourians, under the immediate command of Col. Saunders, 
were, at the same time, hurrying to the aid of Gen. Price, from 
the same direction with the Lane and Montgomery Jay hawk¬ 
ers ; and having reached the run at Blue Mills, thirty miles 
above Lexington, on the 17th September, crossed over their 
force, except some five hundred men, in a ferry-boat. While 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


149 


the remainder were waiting to cross over, the Jayhawkers 
attacked the five hundred Missourians on the north hank of 
the river. The battle raged furiously for one hour on the river 
bottom, which was heavily timbered and in many places 
covered with water. The Missourians were armed with only 
shot-guns and rifles, and taken by surprise: no time was given 
them to call back any portion of their force on the south side 
of the river; but they were from the counties contiguous to 
Kansas, accustomed in the border wars since 1854 to almost 
monthly fights with the Kansas “Jayhawkers,” under Lane, 
and were fired with the most intense hatred of him and of them. 
Gen. D. K. Atchison, former President of the United States 
Senate, and well known as one of the boldest leaders of the 
State Rights party in Missouri, had been sent from Lexington 
by Gen. Price to meet our troops under Col. Saunders, and 
hasten them on to his army. He was with the five hundred, 
on the north side of the river, when they were attacked, and 
by his presence and example cheered them in the. conflict. 
Charging the “Jayhawkers,” with shouts of almost savage 
ferocity, and fighting with reckless valor, the Missourians 
drove the enemy back a distance of ten miles, the conflict be¬ 
coming a hand-to-hand fight, between detached parties on both 
sides. At length, unable to support the fearful fire of the 
Missourians at the short distance of forty yards, the enemy 
broke into open flight. The loss of the Jayhawkers was very 
considerable. Their official report admitted one hundred and 
fifty killed and some two hundred wounded. The entire loss of 
the Missourians was five killed and twenty wounded. The 
intelligence of this brilliant victory of “the five hundred,” 
was received with shouts of exultation by Price’s army at 
Lexington. 

On the second day after the battle of Blue Mills, Col. Saun¬ 
ders, with his command, joined the army at Lexington, and 
fought gallantly till the surrender of the Federal garrison. In 
the mean time, Sturgis with his cavalry appeared on the river 
bank opposite Lexington, expecting to cross over in the boats 
of Mulligan, and reinforce him to the extent of fourteen hun¬ 
dred men. It happened, however, that on the day before his 
arrival, Gen. Price’s forces had captured all of the enemy’s 
boats and Gen. Sturgis ascertaining this fact, retreated precipi- 


150 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


tately in the direction from which he came. Gen. Price had 
sent across the river two thousand men under Gen. Parsons, to 
meet the forces under Gen. Sturgis, and they succeeded in cap¬ 
turing all the tents and camp equipage of that distinguished 
Yankee commander. The tents were most acceptable to the 
Missourians, as they were the first they had obtained in the 
war, except one hundred and fifty taken at Springfield. Gen. 
Sturgis did not stop in his flight for three days and three 
nights. 

The capture of Lexington had crowned Gen. Price’s com¬ 
mand with a brilliant victory, and so far, the Missouri campaign 
had proceeded, step by step, from one success to another. It 
was at this period, however, that Gen. Price found his position 
one of the greatest emergency. After the victory of Lexing¬ 
ton, he received intelligence that the Confederate forces, under 
General's Pillow and Hardee, had been withdrawn from the 
southeastern portion of the State. Gen. McCulloch had re¬ 
tired to Arkansas. In these circumstances, Gen. Price was 
left with the only forces in Missouri, to confront an enemy 
seventy thousand strong, and being almost entirely without 
ammunition, he was reduced to the necessity of making a 
retrograde movement. 

Before leaving Springfield, Gen. Price had made arrange¬ 
ments for an ample supply of ammunition, then at Jacksons- 
port, Arkansas, to be sent to him in Missouri, Gen. McCulloch 
promising to send a safe escort for it. Gen. McCulloch subse¬ 
quently declined to furnish the escort and stopped the tlain, 
assigning as the reason therefor that, under the circumstances 
then existing, it would be unsafe to send it, and that Gen. 
Price would be compelled to fall back from the Missouri river, 
before the overwhelming forces of the enemy moving against 
him under the direction of Gen. Fremont. 

Having no means of transportation, except for a limited 
number of men, and surrounded by circumstances of the most 
painful and unlooked-for misfortune, Gen. Price was compelled 
to disband a considerable portion of his forces. Ho occasW 
could be more fraught with mortifying reflections to the brave, * 
generous, and hopeful spirit of such a commander as Gen. Price. 
He had marched from success to success; he had raised a force 
from hundreds to tens of thousands; his army had been swelled 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


151 


to twenty-three thousand during his stay at Lexington, not 
enumerating ten thousand volunteers who had collected on the 
north hank of the Missouri about the period when he com¬ 
menced a retreat, compelled by emergencies which the most 
daring valor could no longer hope to surmount. Gen. Price 
advised all who could not accompany him to take care of such 
arms as they had, to cherish a determined spirit, and to hold 
themselves in readiness for another opportunity to join his 
standard. 

In southeastern Missouri, the operations of the partisan, 
Jeff. Thompson, in connection with Gen. Hardee’s command, 
had attracted some public notice from its adventure, and some 
incidents of interest. But the campaign in the Ozark moun¬ 
tains was not productive of any important or serious results. 
Gen. Thompson and his “ Swamp Fox Brigade” gave many 
rash illustrations of daring in the face of the enemy. At one 
time he burnt an important railroad bridge within fifty miles 
of the city of St. Louis, which was swarming with Federal 
troops. On a march towards Fredericktown, with a force of 
twelve hundred men, Gen. Thompson encountered a Federal 
force numbering ten thousand men, which he engaged with 
such skill and courage as to check the enemy’s pursuit and 
move his little force out of danger. The feat showed extraordi¬ 
nary military skill, when we consider that the small force was 
extricated with only twenty killed, while the loss of the enemy 
was counted by hundreds; and that his pursuit was baffled 
only from the impression of a large force opposed to him, which 
was given by the skilful disposition of ambuscades: 

Gen. Price commenced his retreat about the 27th of Septem¬ 
ber. He sent his cavalry forward, and directed them to make 
a demonstration in the neighborhood of Georgetown, fifty miles 
from Lexington, where Fremont was concentrating his forces 
with a view of surrounding him. With Sturgis on the norUi 
side of the river, Lane on the west, and himself on the east, 
each advancing upon Lexington, Fremont expected to cut off 
and capture the entire force of the Missourians. Gen. Price 
supplied his mounted men with provisions for several days, and 
directed them to make demonstrations on each of the divisions 
of the Federals, so as to gain time for the safe retreat of his 
infantry and artillery. By this means, he succeeded m deceiv- 


152 


THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. 


ing the enemy as to liis real purpose; inducing Fremont, Lane, 
and Sturgis to believe that he was about to attack each of 
them. Each of them fell back, and Fremont commenced 
ditching. 

In the mean time, Price’s infantry and artillery were making 
the best time they could towards the south. They had to en¬ 
counter a very serious obstacle in crossing streams swollen by 
the recent rains. The whole command, fifteen thousand strong, 
crossed the Osage river in two common flat-boats, constructed 
for the occasion by men who could boast of no previous expe¬ 
rience either as graduates of military schools, or even as bridge 
builders. 

Subsequently, General Fremont was fifteen days engaged in 
crossing at the same place, upon his pontoon bridges. The 
superiority of the practical man of business, over the scientific 
engineer and “pathfinder,” was demonstrated to the great 
satisfaction of the Missourians. 

Gen. Price continued his retreat to Neosho, at which place 
the Legislature had assembled, under a proclamation from 
Governor Jackson. 

At Neosho, Gen. Price again formed a junction with Gen. 
McCulloch, at the head of five thousand men. The Legisla¬ 
ture had passed the Ordinance of Secession, and elected dele¬ 
gates to the Provisional Congress of the Southern Confederacy; 
and here Gen. Price had the satisfaction of firing one hundred 
guns in honor of the formal secession of Missouri from the 
United States, to which his services in the field had more than 
any thing else contributed. 

Gen. McCulloch remained a day or two in Neosho, and then 
fell back with his forces to Cassville. Price remained ten days 
in Neosho, and then retreated also to Cassville, and from Cass¬ 
ville to Pineville, in McDonald county. 

Meanwhile, General Fremont, with his grand army of sixty 
thousand men, equipped in the most splendid and costly man¬ 
ner, had concentrated his forces at Springfield, throwing for¬ 
ward an advance of ten thousand men under Gen. Sigel to 
Wilson’s Creek. The Missouri forces at Springfield, under the 
command of Col. Taylor, were ordered by General Price to 
fall back upon the approach of the enemy; but in leaving the 
town they encountered Fremont’s body-guard, three times 


THE FIKST TEAK OF THE WAR. 


153 


tlieir own number, armed with Colt’s rifles and commanded by 
Col. Zagonyi. A conflict ensued, in which fifty of the enemy 
were killed, and twenty-five captured, including a major. The 
loss of the Missourians was one killed and three wounded. 

At Pineville, General Price made preparations to receive 
Fremont, determined not to abandon Missouri without a battle. 
His troops were enthusiastic and confident of success, notwith¬ 
standing the fearful superiority of numbers against them. 
They were in daily expectation of being led by their com¬ 
mander into the greatest battle of the war, when they received 
the unexpected intelligence that Fremont had been superseded 
as commander of the Federal forces. This event had the effect 
of demoralizing the Federal forces to such an extent, that their 
numbers would have availed them nothing in a fight with 
their determined foe. The Dutch, who were greatly attached 
to Fremont, broke out into open mutiny, and the acting offi¬ 
cers in command saw that a retreat from Springfield was not 
only a wise precaution, but an actual necessity. They accord¬ 
ingly left that town in the direction of Rolla, and were pur¬ 
sued by Gen. Price to Oceola. From Oceola, Gen. Price fell 
back to Springfield, to forage his army and obtain supplies; 
and here, for the present, we must leave the history of his cam¬ 
paign. We have now traced that history to a period about 
the first of December. 

From the 20th of June to the 1st of December, General 
Price’s army marched over 800 miles, averaging ten thousand 
men during the time. What they accomplished, the reader 
will decide for himself, upon the imperfect sketch here given. 
They fought five battles, and at least thirty skirmishes, in some 
of which from fifty to hundreds were killed on one side or the 
other. Hot a week elapsed between engagements of some sort. 
They started without a dollar, without a wagon or team, with¬ 
out a cartridge, without a bayonet-gun. On the first of Sep¬ 
tember, they had about eight thousand bayonet-guns, fifty 
pieces of cannon, four hundred tents, and many other articles 
needful in an army ; for nearly all of which they were indebted 
to their own strong arms in battle and to the prodigality of the 
enemy in providing more than he could take care ot in his 
campaign. 

notwithstanding the great exposure to which the Missouri 


154 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


troops were subjected, not fifty died of disease during their six 
months’ campaign, and but few were on the sick list at the close 
of it. The explanation is, that the troops were all the time in 
motion, and thus escaped the camp fever and other diseases 
that prove so fatal to armies standing all the time in a de¬ 
fensive position. 


SKETCH OF GENERAL PRICE. % * 

The man who had conducted one of the most wonderful 
campaigns of the war—Sterling Price—was a native of Vir¬ 
ginia. He was born about the year 1810 in Prince Edward 
county, a county which had given birth to two other military 
notabilities—General John Coffee, the “right-hand man” of 
General Jackson in his British and Indian campaigns, and 
General Joseph E. Johnston, already distinguished as one of 
the heroes of the present war. 

Sterling Price emigrated to Missouri, and settled in Charlton 
county, in the interior of that State, in the year 1830, pursu¬ 
ing the quiet avocations of a farmer. 

In the year 1844, Mr. Price was nominated by his party as 
a candidate for Congress, and was elected by a decided 
majority. He took his seat in December, 1845 ; but having 
failed to receive the party nomination in the following spring, 
he resigned his seat and returned home. His course in this 
respect was dictated by that conscientious integrity and high 
sense of honor which have ever distinguished him in all the 
relations of life. He argued that his defeat was caused either 
by dissatisfaction with his course on the part of his constitu¬ 
ents, or else by undue influences which had been brought to 
bear upon the people by ambitious aspirants for the seat, who 
could labor to a great advantage in their work in supplanting 
an opponent who was attending to his duties at a distance from 
them. If the former was the case, he was unwilling to mis¬ 
represent his constituents, who, he believed, had the right to 
instruct him as to the course he should pursue; if the latter, 
his self-respect would not allow him to serve a people who had 
rejected him without cause, while he was doing all in his power 
to advance their interests. 

At the time of Mr. Price’s retirement from Congress, hostili- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


155 


ties had broken out between the United States and Mexico, 
and volunteers from all parts of the South were flocking to the 
defence of their country’s flag. Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Mis¬ 
sissippi, bred a soldier, who, like Mr. Price, was serving his 
first term in Congress, resigned his seat about the same time, 
and was soon marching at the head of a Mississippi regiment 
to the field, from which he was destined to return loaded with 
many honors. So, too, did a brave Missouri regiment call to 
its head her own son, who had just doffed his civil robes to 
enter a new and untried field of duty and honor. The regi¬ 
ment to which Col. Price was attached was detailed for duty 
in what is now the Territory of New Mexico. It was by his. 
own arms that that province was subdued, though not with¬ 
out several brilliant engagements, in which he displayed the 
same gallantry that has so distinguished him in the present 
contest. 

Soon after the close of the Mexican war, a violent political 
excitement broke out in Missouri. The slavery agitation had 
received a powerful impetus by the introduction into Con¬ 
gress of the Wilmot Proviso and other sectional measures, 
whose avowed object was to exclude the South from any portion 
of the territory which had been acquired principally by the 
blood of Southern soldiers. The people of the South became 
justly alarmed at the spread of Abolitionism at the North, and 
no people were more jealous of any encroachment upon the 
rights of the South than the citizens of Missouri, a majority of 
whose leading statesmen were as sound on the slavery question 
as those of Virginia or South Carolina. In order to cause Col. 
Benton, who had become obnoxious to a large portion of the 
Democratic party by his course on the Texas question, the 
Wilmot Proviso, and other measures of public policy, to resign 
his seat, and for the purpose of casting the weight of the State- 
against the surging waves of Abolitionism, a series of resolu¬ 
tions, commonly known as the ‘‘Jackson resolutions,” was 
introduced into the Senate at the session of 1848-9, by Clai¬ 
borne F. Jackson, the present governor of Missouri, which 
passed both houses of the General Assembly. These resolu¬ 
tions were substantially the same as those introduced the year 
before, by Mr. Calhoun, into the Senate of the United States. 

From the Legislature Col. Benton appealed to the people, and 

11 


156 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


made a vigorous canvass against the Jackson resolutions through¬ 
out the whole State, marked by extraordinary ability and bit¬ 
terness towards their author and principal supporters. T1 e 
sixth resolution, which pledged Missouri to u co-operate with 
her sister States in any measures they might adopt,” to defend 
their rights against the encroachments of the North, was the 
object of his special denunciation and his most determined 
opposition. He denounced it as the essence of nullification, 
and ransacked the vocabulary of billingsgate for coarse and 
vulgar epithets to apply to its author and advocates. But his 
herculean efforts to procure the repeal of the resolutions proved 
abortive. Colonel Benton was defeated for the Senate the 
next year by a combination of Democrats and State-Bights 
Whigs; and the Jackson resolutions remain on the statute 
book unrepealed to this day. Their author is governor of the 
State ; their principal supporters are fighting to drive myrmi¬ 
dons of Abolitionism from the soil of Missouri; and how nobly 
the State has redeemed her pledge to “ co-operate with her 
sister States,” the glorious deeds of her hardy sons, who have 
fought her battles almost single-handed, who have struggled 
on through neglect and hardship and suffering without ever 
dreaming of defeat, afford the most incontestible evidence. . 

In the canvass of 1852, the Anti-Benton Democrats put for¬ 
ward Gen. Sterling Price as their choice for the office of gov¬ 
ernor, and the Bentonites supported Gen. Thomas L. Price, at 
that time lieutenant-governor, and now a member of Lincoln’s 
Congress and a brigadier-general in Lincoln’s army. The 
Anti-Bentonites triumphed, and the nomination fell on Gen. 
Sterling Price, who, receiving the vote of the whole Demo¬ 
cratic party, was elected by a large majority over an eloquent 
and popular whig, Colonel Winston, a grandson of Patrick 
Henry. 

The administration of Gov. Price was distinguished for an 
earnest devotion to the material interests of Missouri. At the 
expiration of his term of office, he received a large vote in the 
Democratic caucus for the nomination for United States sena¬ 
tor, but the choice fell on Mr. James Green. 

In the Presidential election of 1860, in common with Major 
Jackson, who was the Democratic candidate for governor, and 
a number of other leading men of his party, Ex-Governor 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


157 

Price supported Mr. Douglas for the Presidency, on the 
ground that he was the regular nominee of the Democratic 
party. He moreover considered Mr. Douglas true to the in¬ 
stitutions of the South, and believed him to be the only one of 
the candidates who could prevent the election of the Black 
Republican candidate. The influence of these men* carried 
Missouri for Douglas. 

Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Border States 
were unwilling to rush into dissolution until every hope of a 
peaceful settlement of the question had vanished. This was 
the position of Missouri, to whose Convention not a single Se¬ 
cessionist was elected. Governor Price was elected from his 
district as a Union man, without opposition, and, on the assem¬ 
bling of the Convention, was chosen its President. The Con¬ 
vention had not been in session many weeks before the radi¬ 
calism of the Black Republican administration, and its hostility 
to the institutions of the South, became manifest to every un¬ 
prejudiced mind. The perfidy and brutality of its officers in 
Missouri were particularly observable, and soon opened the 
eyes of the people to the true objects of the Black Republican 
party. The State authorities decided upon resistance to the 
Federal government; the Governor issued his proclamation for 
volunteers ; and of the forces raised under this call, who were 
denominated the Missouri State Guard, Governor Price was 
appointed major-general, and took the field. 

The period of history has scarcely yet arrived for a full ap¬ 
preciation of the heroic virtues of the campaign in Missouri, 
especially as illustrated in the character of the chieftain whom 
no personal jealousies could distract or unmerited slights turn 
from the single course of duty and devotion to his country. 
He had given the government at Richmond a valuable, but 
distasteful lesson in the conduct of the war. He did not settle 
down complacently into one kind of policy, refusing to advance 
because he was on the defensive, but he sought the enemy 
wherever he could find him, fought him when ready, and re¬ 
treated out of his way when not prepared. His policy was 
both offensive and defensive, and he used the one which might 
be demanded by the exigencies of his situation. He was some¬ 
thing better than a pupil of West Point—he was a general by 
nature, a beloved commander, a man who illustrated the Ro- 


158 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


man simplicity of character in the nineteenth century. His 
troops not only loved him, they were wildly and enthusiastic¬ 
ally devoted to him. His figure in the battle-field, clothed in 
a common brown linen coat, with his white hair streaming in 
the wind, was the signal for wild and passionate cheers, and 
there was not one of his soldiers, it was said, but who was will¬ 
ing to die, if he could only fall within sight of his commander. 

It is not improbable that had General Price been supported 
after the battle of Lexington, he would have wrung the State 
of Missouri from the possession of the enemy. He was forced 
by untoward circumstances, already referred to, to turn back 
in a career just as it approached the zenith of success, and he 
could have given no higher proof of his magnanimity than 
that he did so without an expression of bitterness or a word of 
recrimination. He bore the cold neglect of the government at 
Richmond and the insulting proposition which President Davis 
was compelled by popular indignation to abandon, to place 
over him, as major-general in his department, a pupil of West 
Point his inferior in rank, with philosophic patience and with¬ 
out any subtraction from his zeal for his country. When his 
officers expressed resentment for the injustice done him by the 
government, he invariably checked them: stating that there 
should be no controversies of this kind while the war lasted, 
and that he was confident that posterity would do him justice. 
He was more than right; for the great majority of his living 
countrymen did him justice, despite the detractions of jealousy 
in Richmond. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


159 


CHAPTER VI. 


The Campaign in Western Virginia.—General Wise’s Command.—Political Influ¬ 
ences in Western Virginia.—The Affair of Scary Creek.—General Wise’s Retreat to 
Lewisburg.—General Floyd’s Brigade.—The Affair at Cross Lanes.—Movements on 
the Gauley.—The Affair of Carnifax Ferry.—Disagreement between Generals Floyd 
and Wise.—The Tyrees.—A Patriotic Woman.—Movements in Northwestern Vir¬ 
ginia.—General Lee.—The Enemy intrenched on Cheat Mountain.—General Rose- 
crans.—Failure of General Lee’s Plan of Attack.—He removes to the Kanawha Re¬ 
gion.—The Opportunity of a Decisive Battle lost.—Retreat of Rosecrans.—General 
H. R. Jackson’s Affair on the Greenbrier.—The Approach of Winter.—The Campaign 
in Western Virginia abandoned.—The Affair on the Alleghany.—General Floyd at 
Cotton Hill.—His masterly Retreat.—Review of the Campaign in Western Virginia.— 
Some of its Incidents.—Its Failure and unfortunate Results.—Other Movements in 
Virginia.—The Potomac Line.—The Battle of Leesbukg. —Overweening Confidence 
of the South. 


We must return here to the narrative of the campaign in 
Virginia. The campaign in the western portion of the State 
was scarcely more than a series of local adventures, compared 
with other events of the war. It was a failure from the be¬ 
ginning—owing to the improvidence of the government, the 
want of troops, the hostile character of the country itself, and 
a singular military policy, to which we shall have occasion 
hereafter to refer. 

General Wise, of Virginia, was appointed a brigadier-gen¬ 
eral without an army. He rallied around him at Richmond a 
number of devoted friends, and explained to them his views 
and purposes. Cordially favoring his plans, they went into 
the country, and called upon the people to rally to the stand¬ 
ard of General Wise, and enable him to prevent the approach 
of the enemy into the Kanawha Valley. 

About the first of June, General Wise left Richmond for the 
western portion of the State, accompanied by a portion of his 
staff. At Lewisburg, he was joined by several companies 
raised and organized in that region. From this point, he pro¬ 
ceeded to Charleston, in the Kanawha Valley, where he under¬ 
took, with his rare and characteristic enthusiasm, to rally the 
people to the support of the State. A number of them joined 
his command ; but the masses continued apathetic, owing to a 


160 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


number of adverse influences, prominent among which was the 
political position of George W. Summers, the most influential 
politician of Western Virginia, the leader of the “ Union” men 
in the State Convention, and a prominent delegate to the Peace 
Conference at Washington. 

This person threw the weight of his great influence in oppo¬ 
sition to the uprising of the people. He advised them to a 
strict neutrality between the public enemy and the supporters 
of the Confederate government. Notwithstanding all the ap¬ 
peals made to his patriotism, he maintained an attitude of in¬ 
difference, and, by reason s of the high estimation in which he 
was generally held by the community in which he lived, as 
a wise and sagacious man, he succeeded in neutralizing the 
greater portion of Kanawha and the adjoining counties. 

Despite, however, the obstacles in his way, General Wise 
succeeded in raising a brigade of two thousand five hundred 
infantry, seven hundred cavalry, and three battalions of artil¬ 
lery. Of this force, western Virginia furnished about three- 
fifths and the east about two-fifths. On his arrival at Charles¬ 
ton, General Wise found C. G. Tompkins in command of a 
number of companies, chiefly from Kanawha and the adjacent 
counties. These forces, combined with those of the Wise 
Legion, amounted to about four thousand men. 

General Wise, anxious to give an assurance of support to 
the strong Southern sentiment reported to exist in Gilmer and 
Calhoun, sent an expedition into those counties to repress the 
excesses of the Union men. In the mean time, the enemy had 
landed considerable forces at Parkersburg and Point Pleasant 
on the Ohio river, and had military possession of the neigh¬ 
boring country. His superior facilities for raising troops in 
the populous States of Ohio and Indiana, and his ample means 
of transportation by railroad through those States, and by the 
navigation of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, enabled him, in 
a short space of time, to concentrate a large force, with ade¬ 
quate supplies and munitions of war, in the lower part of the 
Kanawha Valley. 

About the middle of July, the enemy advanced up the river 
into the county of Putnam, and, on the 17 th, Captain Patton 
(afterwards Colonel Patton), with a small force, met and re¬ 
pulsed three regiments of the enemy at Scary Creek, in Put 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


161 


nam county, taking prisoners Cols. Norton and Yilliers of the 
Ohio troops, and Cols. Woodroof and Neff of the Kentucky 
troops. The enemy retired, and our forces remained in pos¬ 
session of the field. On the evening of the day of the action, 
General Wise sent down two regiments under Colonels Tomp¬ 
kins and McCausland to reinforce the troops at Scary. Upon 
arriving at the opposite side of the river, they found that the 
enemy had fallen back to his main forces under the command 
of General Cox. 

Being unprepared to hold the position, not having the ade¬ 
quate supplies of men and munitions of war, the Confederates 
fell back in the direction of Charleston. Capt. Patton had 
been dangerously wounded in the action, and could not be re¬ 
moved from the place. Col. Norton, one of the Federal officers 
captured, was also wounded. He and Capt. Patton were placed 
in the same house, Col. Norton entering into an arrangement 
by which Capt. Patton was to be released by the enemy in ex¬ 
change for himself. Gen. Cox, on his arrival, repudiated the 
understanding. He, however, released Capt. Patton on parole 
as soon as he had partially recovered from his wound. 

After the action of Scary, the enemy’s forces, which had 
been largely increased, steadily advanced up the valley both 
by land and water. Gen. Wise, however, was ready to offer 
battle to the enemy, and was confident of his ability to repulse 
him. But just about this time the news of the disaster to 
Gen. Garnett’s command at Bich Mountain reached the Ka¬ 
nawha Yalley, and put a new aspect upon military operations 
in that section. The consequences of this disaster exposed the 
little army of Gen. Wise to imminent peril. He was in danger 
of being cut off in the rear by several roads from the north 
west, striking the Kanawha road at various points between 
Lewisburg and Gauley Bridge. Under these circumstances, 
Gen. Wise determined to fall back with his entire force to 
Lewisburg, a distance of one hundred miles. This he did in 
good order, destroying the bridges behind him, and reaching 
Lewisburg about the first of August. Remaining in that 
vicinity some ten days, laboriously engaged in organizing his 
brigade, and supplying it, as far as possible, with arms and 
the essential materials for an active campaign, he announced 
himself as again prepared to take np the line of advance. 


162 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


About this time, General Floyd arrived at the Greenbrier 
White Sulphur Springs with a brigade of three regiments oi 
infantry and a battalion of cavalry. He had been ordered, in 
the first instance, to proceed with his command to Jackson 
River, with a view to the relief of the retreating forces of Gen. 
Garnett; but, on his arrival at the Sweet Springs from South¬ 
ampton, Virginia, Gen. Floyd’s direction was changed by au¬ 
thority to the Kanawha Yalley. After consultation between 
Generals Floyd and Wise in Greenbrier county, the former, 
who was the ranking officer, resumed his march westward, the 
latter following in a few days. 

Gen. Floyd commenced to skirmish with the enemy’s pickets 
at Tyree’s, on the west side of the Sewell Mountain, driving 
them back to their command, five miles distant, with a loss of 
four killed and seven wounded. Upon his approach, the army 
retreated from Locust Lane to Hamilton’s, near Hawk’s Nest, 
Floyd’s command advancing and occupying the camp of the 
Federals the next night. The Wise Legion also came up and 
occupied the same ground. The two commands then advanced 
to Dogwood Gap, where the road from Summersville intersects 
the turnpike from Lewisburg to Charleston. There tivo pieces 
of artillery were posted to keep open the line, and prevent a 
flanking movement from Cox’s command via Carnifax Ferry, 
where there was reported to be a Federal force of several 
thousand. The main command then moved down to Pickett’s 
Mills, near Hamilton’s, within a few miles of the enemy’s 
camp. At this point, information was obtained that the rear 
of the Confederates was threatened by Matthews’ and Tyler’s 
commands, which had occupied Carnifax Ferry (on the Gauley 
river), and Cross Lanes, a few miles distant therefrom. Gen. 
Floyd at once ordered his brigade to strike tents, and at half¬ 
past one o’clock in the morning he took up the line of march, 
with the view of engaging the forces of his assailants, whose 
object w?-s to cut off his trains and fall upon his rear. 

Gen. Wise’s command was left at Pickett’s Mills to hold the 
turnpike, and prevent a flank movement from Hawk’s Nest, 
where the main body of Cox’s forces were stationed on Hew 
River, seven miles east of Gauley Bridge. 

Floyd’s brigade proceeded by a rapid march, and reached 
Carnifax Ferry about noon of the same day. On his arrival 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


163 


there, he learned that the enemy had drawn in his commands 
at Cross Lanes and Carnifax Ferry, in anticipation of an attack 
at Hawk’s Nest. Gen. Floyd proceeded at once to raise the 
boats which the enemy had sunk in the river at the ferry, and 
to construct other boats for crossing the river immediately, so 
as to occupy the strong positions which the enemy had held on 
the opposite side of the Gauley. In the short space of twenty- 
four hours, he had constructed a small batteau to carry some 
ten men, and had raised a ferry-boat capable of carrying fifty 
men and transporting his wagons, and had succeeded in ferry¬ 
ing over all of his infantry and two pieces of artillery. He 
then undertook to transport his cavalry, when an accident 
occurred which caused the loss of the ferry-boat and four men. 
The boat capsized and was drawn over the rapids. By this 
accident, Gen. Floyd’s command was severed, most of his 
cavalry and four pieces of artillery being left on the eastern 
side of the stream, while his infantry and a small portion of his 
cavalry had reached the opposite shore. The stream had been 
so swollen by recent rains as to render ferrying extremely 
hazardous. Gen. Floyd, from the western side, ordered the 
quarter-master across the river to build boats on the other side, 
and to convey a message to Gen. Wise informing him of the 
condition of the command. 

In twenty-four hours, a boat was built and launched from 
the west side of the river, and the remainder of the artillery 
and cavalry and such wagons as were needful were passed 
over. In the mean time, Gen. Floyd was engaged in strength¬ 
ening his position. His scouts were thrown out in the direc¬ 
tion of Gauley Bridge, by way of the Summersville and Gauley 
turnpike, and they reported the advance of the enemy in con¬ 
siderable strength from Gauley, in the direction of Cross 
Lanes. The next evening, the enemy had advanced to Cross 
Lanes, within two miles of Floyd’s camp. The Federal officers 
had heard of the casualty at the ferry, and their “ Union’!, 
friends in the neighboring country had reported to them that 
but two hundred of the infantry and cavalry had succeeded in 
crossing over. 

Col. Tyler, who commanded the Federals, was confident of 
the capture of the whole force on the western side of the river. 
He was sadly disappointed. Gen. Floyd had drawn up his 


164 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


forces in line of battle on the evening of Sunday, August 25th, 
and prepared for an attack. His pickets had closely scented 
the enemy’s position. Keeping his men in line of battle all 
night, at four o’clock the next morning he ordered an advance 
upon the enemy, whose strength was estimated at from fifteen 
hundred to two thousand. The order was promptly obeyed. 
The several Virginia regiments marched by the respective 
routes assigned them, and succeeded in completely surprising 
the Federals. . Col. Tyler’s line of pickets did not extend more 
than two or three hundred yards from his camp in the direc¬ 
tion of Carnifax Ferry. His men were found preparing their 
breakfasts of green corn and fresh beef—roasting their corn 
by the fire and broiling their beef on sharp sticks. They were 
encUmped in separate divisions, the rear being very near the 
church, in the direction of Gauley, in which building Col. 
Tyler had taken up his quarters. Their pickets were drawn 
in, and the division nearest to Floyd’s forces took position 
behind a fence, where, for a time, they stubbornly resisted the 
attack. They were soon dislodged, and the whole command 
pushed over the hills, where they broke into the most disgrace¬ 
ful flight, the advance of which was conspicuously led by their 
colonel and field-officers. The flight was one of wild conster¬ 
nation, many of the enemy not only throwing away their arms, 
but divesting themselves of hats and coats to accelerate their 
flight, which was continued on an uninterrupted stretch for 
twelve or fifteen miles. 

The commander of the Federals, Col. Tyler, was an Ohio 
man, and was familiar with the topography of the country he 
had come to invade, having visited it for years in the character 
of a fur-dealer. On his advent in the Kanawha Valley as the 
commander of an invading regiment, the coarse jest was made 
in some of the Northern papers that he would “ drive a snug 
business” in rebel skins. The joke was turned against him by 
the Virginia soldiers at Cross Lanes, when they captured all 
the baggage of the Federal command, including the colonel’s 
shirts, who had thus narrowly escaped with his own skin. As 
the flying enemy dashed on, the colonel led the retreat at a 
considerable distance ahead of it. One of his staff, a major, in 
leaping a fence got his -horse astride it, and had to leate him 
there, trusting to the fleetness of his own heels for safety. 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


165 


In the affair at Cross Lanes, the enemy’s loss in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners was about two hundred. That on our 
side in killed and wounded did not exceed a dozen men. 

Gen. Floyd proceeded to strengthen his position on the 
Gauley. Having succeeded in throwing his forces between 
Cox and Rosecrans, he set to work to bring up ten days’ sup¬ 
plies in advance, intending to throw a portion of his command 
into the Kanawha Valley below Cox, with a view of cutting off 
his retreat. Having secured supplies sufficient to justify an 
advance movement, Gen. Floyd was about this time apprised 
of the approach of Rosecrans, by way* of Suttonsville, with 
a large force for the relief of Cox. On the evening previous to 
the contemplated advance of the Confederates against Cox, 
about three o’clock of the 10th of September, Rosecrans, b‘y a 
rapid march of sixteen miles, threw his entire force of ten regi¬ 
ments and several heavy batteries of artillery about Floyd’s 
intrencliments, and commenced a vigorous attack. 

The successful resistance of this attack of the enemy, in the 
neighborhood of Carnifax Ferry, was one of the most remark¬ 
able incidents of the campaign in Western Virginia. The force 
of Gen. Floyd’s command was 1,740 men, and from three 
o’clock in the afternoon until nightfall, it sustained, with un¬ 
wavering determination and the most brilliant success, an as¬ 
sault from an enemy between eight and nine thousand strong, 
made with small-arms, grape, and round-shot, from howitzers 
and rifled cannon. 

Upon the close of the contest for the night, Gen. Floyd de¬ 
termined at once to cross the Gauley river, and take position 
upon the left bank—Gen. Wise having failed to reinforce him, 
and it being only a question of time when he would be com¬ 
pelled to yield to the superiority of numbers. The retreat 
across the river was accomplished by aid of a hastily con¬ 
structed bridge of logs, about four feet wide, without the loss 
of a gun, or any accident whatever. In a continued firing upon 
us, by cannon and small-arms, for nearly four hours, only 
twenty of our men had been wounded and none killed. We 
had repulsed the enemy in five distinct and successive assaults, 
and had held him in complete check until the river was placed 
between him and the little army he had come in the insolent 
confidence of overwhelming numbers to destroy. The loss of 


166 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


tie enemy had been considerable, Col. Lytle, of Cincinnati, 
and a number of other Federal officers, having fallen in their 
attempts to rally their men to a successful charge. The whole 
loss of the enemy cannot he stated here; it was very serious, 
by the admission of the Cincinnati Commercial , and other Fed¬ 
eral newspapers; it, unquestionably, must have amounted to 
several hundred in killed and wounded. Gen. Floyd was 
wounded by a musket-shot in the arm. His flag, which was 
flying at head-quarters, and his tent were riddled with balls. 

At the time that information had reached Gen. Floyd of the 
advance of the enemy towards his position, he had dispatched 
orders to Gen. Wise for reinforcements, which he failed to pro¬ 
cure. In his official report of the action, Gen. Floyd wrote to 
the War Department at Richmond : “ I am very confident that 
I could have beaten the enemy and marched directly to the 
Yalley of the Kanawha, if the reinforcements from Gen. Wise’s 
column had come up when ordered, and the regiments from 
North Carolina and Georgia could have reached me before the 
close of the second day’s conflict. I cannot express the regret 
which I feel at the necessity, over which I had no control, 
which required that I should recross the river. I am confi¬ 
dent that if I could have commanded the services of five 
thousand men, instead of eighteen hundred, which I had, 1 
could have opened the road directly into the Yalley of the 
Kanawha.” Referring to the correspondence between himself 
and Gen. Wise, in which the latter had declined to send for¬ 
ward reinforcements, Gen. Floyd indicated to the government 
the urgent necessity of shaping the command in the Yalley 
of the Kanawha, so as to insure in the future that unity of 
action, upon which alone can rest any hope of success in mili¬ 
tary matters. 

While Gen. Floyd was at Carnifax Ferry, Gen. Wise marched 
down to Big Creek, in Fayette county, where the enemy were 
in considerable force, fortified his position, and offered them 
battle. He hoped to obtain a position upon the flank of the 
enemy, and with that view, sent Col. Anderson and his regi¬ 
ment by an obscure county road, but did not succeed in his ob- i 
ject. Meanwhile, with two regiments of infantry and a battery 
of artillery, Gen. Wise remained within a quarter of a mile of 
the enemy. A sharp skirmish took place, the enemy opening 


THE FIR3T YEAR OF THE WAR. 


167 


upon Wise’s forces with artillery, doing no execution, however. 
The artillery of the Wise Legion replied, throwing shell, with 
some effect, into the enemy’s lines. But the attempt to bring 
on a general engagement w r as unsuccessful, the enemy declin¬ 
ing the offer of battle. 

Gen. Floyd retreated in good order from Carnifax Ferry to 
the summit of Big Sewell Mountain, where he remained for 
three days, when, in accordance with the decision of a council 
of officers called by him, he ordered a retreat to Meadow Bluff, 
a position which, it w T as said, guarded all the approaches to 
Lewisburg and the railroad. Gen. Wise, however, who had 
ffillen back with Gen. Floyd to Big Sewell, declined to retreat 
to Meadow Bluff, and proceeded to strengthen his position, 
which he named Camp “ Defiance.” 

The enemy had advanced to Tyree’s—a well-known public 
house, on the turnpike-road, in Fayette county. This country 
tavern had been kept for a number of years by an ancient 
couple, whose fidelity and services to the South were remarka¬ 
ble. Of the courage and adventure of Mrs. Tyree, many ’well- 
authenticated anecdotes are told. Her husband, though a very 
old man, had gone into the ranks of the Confederate army 
at the commencement of the war. The enemy, who were well- 
advised of the enthusiastic attachment of Mrs. Tyree to the 
cause of the State of Virginia, soon made her an object of their 
annoyances. Their first attempt was to take away the only 
horse the old woman had. A Federal soldier came to her 
house, caught her horse without her knowledge, and was about 
to ride him off, when she discovered the thief and demanded 
his business. The soldier replied that he was directed to take 
the horse for the purpose of “jayhawking.” The words were 
scarcely out of his mouth, when Mrs. Tyree knocked him down 
w ith a billet of wood, stretching the ambitious “ jayhawker” 
almost lifeless upon the ground. The horse, for further secu¬ 
rity, was locked up in the old woman’s smoke-house. 

On another occasion, a file of Federal soldiers proceeded to 
the premises of Mrs. Tyree, with the intention of driving off 
her cow. Discovering them, she asked what they intended to 
do with her cow. “ We intend to drive it to camp for a beef,” 
was the reply. Instantly, wrenching a gun from the hands of 
one of the soldiers, Mrs. Tyree deliberately declared that she 


168 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


would shoot the first man who attempted to drive the cow from 
her premises. u The rest of you may then hill me,” she said, 
u if you think proper.’’ The soldiers were, baffied, and Mrs. 
Tyree’s cow was saved. 

A few nights afterwards, a number of soldiers surrounded 
her house, under the shelter of which was herself, her daughter, 
and a few faithful servants, without any male protector what¬ 
ever. They ordered the family to leave, as they intended to 
burn the house. Mrs. Tyree positively refused to leave the 
house, very coolly locked all the doors, and told them if they 
intended to burn the building, to apply the torch without 
further ceremony, as she and her family were resolved to be 
consumed with it. The villains, hesitating at such a work of 
fiendish assassination, were forced to leave without putting their 
threat into execution. The heroic spirit of such a woman, not 
only protected her household, but furnished many interesting 
incidents to the campaign in her neighborhood, which it is not 
now the time to relate. It is to be regretted that Her home 
was left within the lines of the enemy. 

Having traced to a certain period, the operations in the Val¬ 
ley of the Kanawha, we must turn to note the movements of 
the army in northwestern Virginia. 

After the retreat of Gen. Garnett from Rich Mountain, and 
the death of that officer, Gen. Lee was appointed to succeed 
him, and, with as little delay as possible, to repair to the scene 
of operations. The most remarkable circumstance of this cam¬ 
paign was, that it was conducted by a general who had never 
fought a battle, who had a pious horror of guerrillas, and whose 
extreme tenderness of blood induced him to depend exclusively 
upon the resources of strategy, to essay the achievement of vic¬ 
tories without the cost of life. 

Gen. Lee took with him reinforcements, making his whole 
force, in conjunction with the remnant of Gen. Garnett’s army 
that had fallen back from Rich Mountain to Monterey, about 
sixteen thousand men. Early in August, Gen. Lee reached 
with his command the neighborhood of Cheat Mountain, on 
the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, and found it strongly 
fortified by the enemy. The position was known to be an ex¬ 
ceedingly strong one, and not easily turned. Nevertheless, 
Gen. Lee was confident that he would be able by strategic 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


169 


movements to dislodge the enemy from his stronghold, capture 
his forces, and then march his victorious army into the heart 
of northwestern Virginia, releasing the people there from the 
fetters with which, for two months, they had been bound. The 
prospect of such a conquest of the enemy was eminently pleas¬ 
ant. Rosecrans* was the ranking officer in northwestern Vir¬ 
ginia, but Gen. Reynolds was in command of the troops on 
Cheat Mountain and in its vicinity, his force being estimated 
at from ten to twelve thousand men. 

Gen. Lee felt his way cautiously along the road leading from 
Huntersville to Huttonsville, in the county of Randolph, and 
reaching Valley Mountain, he halted for some time, arranging 
his plans for attacking the enemy, who were about eight miles 
below him, in Randolph county, at Crouch’s, in Tygart’s Val¬ 
ley River, five or six thousand strong. His plans were ar¬ 
ranged so as to divide his forces for the purpose of surrounding 
the enemy. After great labor and the endurance of severe 
hardships on the mountain spurs, where the weather was very 
cold, he succeeded in getting below the enemy, on Tygart’s 
Valley River, placing other portions of his forces on the spurs 
of the mountain immediately east and west of the enemy, and 
marching another portion of his troops down the Valley River 
close to the enemy. The forces were thus arranged in position 
for making an attack upon the enemy at Crouch’s, and re¬ 
mained there for some hours. It was doubtless in the plan of 
Gen. Lee for his forces to remain in position until the consum¬ 
mation of another part of his plan, viz. that some fifteen hun¬ 
dred of Gen. IT. R. Jackson’s forces stationed at Greenbrier 


* Gen. Rosecrans is of German descent, a native of Ohio, and a graduate 
of West Point. He had devoted much study to chemistry and geology, and 
resided some time in Charleston, Kanawha, prosecuting some researches into 
the mineral riches of that region. He was also employed in some capacity 
for a time by some of the coal companies or some of the coal-oil manufactur¬ 
ers there. His last enterprise, previous to the war, was the establishment of 
an oil manufactory in Cincinnati. In this he failed pecuniarily. The war 
was a timely event to him, and his military education gave him a claim to 
consideration. In the South, he was esteemed as one of the best generals the 
North had in the field; he was declared by military critics, who could not be 
suspected of partiality, to have clearly out-generalled Lee in western Vir¬ 
ginia, who made it the entire object of his campaign to “ surround” the Dutch 
general; and his popular manners and amiable deportment towards our pris¬ 
oners, on more than one occasion, procured him the respect of his enemy. 



170 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


River should march around another position of the enemy, at 
the celebrated Cheat Mountain Pass, on the Staunton and 
Parkersburg road, where he was five or six thousand strong. 
Jackson’s forces did march around this position, under com 
mand of Col. Rust, of Arkansas, through extraordinary diffi¬ 
culties and perils and under circumstances of terrible exhaus¬ 
tion. The troops had to ascend the almost perpendicular 
mountain sides, but finally succeeded in obtaining a positiop 
in front of and to the west of the enemy. The attack of this 
force upon the enemy on Cheat Mountain was understood to 
be, in the plan of Gen. Lee, a signal for the attack by his 
forces upon the enemy at Crouch’s. Col. Rust, however, dis¬ 
covered the enemy on the mountain to be safely protected by 
block-houses and other defences, and concluding that the at¬ 
tack could not be made with any hope of success, ordered a 
retreat. The signal was not given according to the plan of 
Gen. Lee, and no attack was made by his forces, which re¬ 
treated without firing a gun back to Valley Mountain. 

It is understood that Gen. Lee did not expect Col. Rust to 
make an attack with any certainty or even probability of suc¬ 
cess ; his purpose being for Col. Rust to hold the enemy in 
position at Cheat Mountain Pass, while he was engaging them 
at Crouch’s. The fact, however, is, that Cheat Mountain Pass 
was, by the nearest road to Crouch’s, ten miles distant; and 
there are strong reasons for believing that, if Gen. Lee had 
made the attack upon the enemy at the latter position, they 
would have been captured to a man, notwithstanding the 
failure to hold the forces in check at Cheat Mountain. Such 
was the impression of the Federals themselves. If the enemy 
had been captured at Crouch’s, a march of ten miles down the 
Valley River by Gen. Lee would have brought his forces in the 
rear of the enemy at Iluttonsville, cutting off his supplies, and, 
with Jackson on the other side, compelling him to the necessity 
of surrender. 

It is to be regretted that Gen. Lee failed to make the attack 
at Crouch’s, and to realize the rich results of his well-matured 
plan. Had he defeated the enemy at Crouch’s, he would have 
been within two days’ march of the position from which Gen. 
Garnett had retreated, and could have held Rosecrans in check, 
who was at that time making his way to Carnifax Ferry to 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


171 


oppose Floyd. There is reason to believe that if Gen. Lee had 
not allowed the immaterial part of his plan to control his 
action, a glorious success would have resulted, opening the 
whole northwestern country to us, and enabling Floyd and 
Wise to drive Cox with ease out of the Kanawha Yalley. Re- 
grets, however, were unavailing now. Gen. Lee’s plan, finished 
drawings of which were sent to the War Department at Rich¬ 
mond, was said to have been one of the best-laid plans that 
ever illustrated the consummation of the rules of strategy, 
or ever went awry on account of practical failures in its 
execution. 

Having failed in his plans for dislodging the enemy from 
Chpat Mountain, and thus relieving northwestern Yirginia of 
his presence, Gen. Lee determined to proceed to the Kanawha 
region, with a view of relieving Generals Floyd and Wise, and 
possibly driving the enemy to the extreme western borders of 
Yirginia. Accordingly, in the latter part of September, he 
ordered the principal portion of his command to take up a line 
of march in that direction. 

It has already been stated that Gen. Floyd had fallen back 
with his forces to Meadow Bluff, while Gen. Wise stopped to 
the east of the summit of Big Sewell. In this position Gem 
Lee found them on his arrival. He took up his head-quarters 
with Gen. Floyd, and, after examining his position, proceeded 
to Sewell, where Gen. Wise still remained in front of the 
enemy. He decided to fortify Wise’s position. Gen. Floyd’s 
command, except a garrison at Meadow Bluff, returned to Big 
Sewell. He had been largely reinforced since he had left the 
Gauley river. The position on Big Sewell was made exceed¬ 
ingly strong by a breastwork extending four miles. 

The whole Confederate force here under the command of 
Gen. Lee was nearly twenty thousand. This formidable army 
remained for twelve or fifteen days within sight of the enemy, 
each apparently awaiting an attack from the other. Thus the 
time passed, when, one morning, Gen. Lee discovered, much 
to his surprise, that the enemy he had been so long hesitating 
to attack no longer confronted him. Rosecrans had disap¬ 
peared in the night, and reached his old position on the Gau¬ 
ley, thirty-two miles distant, without annoyance from the 

Confederate army. Thus the second opportunity of a decisive 

12 


172 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


battle in western Virginia was blindly lost, Gen. Lee making 
no attempt to follow up the enemy who had so skilfully eluded 
him; the excuses alleged for his not doing so being mud, swol¬ 
len streams, and the leanness of his artillery horses. 

In withdrawing from the Cheat Mountain region, Gen. Lee 
had left a force of some twenty-five hundred men at Greenbrier 
River, and, while he was playing at strategy in the Kanawha 
valley, this little force had achieved a signal victory over an 
apparently overwhelming force of the enemy. The force on 
the Greenbrier at the foot of Cheat Mountain was under com¬ 
mand of Gen. H. R. Jackson, of Georgia. A small force had 
also been left on the Alleghany Mountain, at Huntersville, and 
perhaps other localities in that region. 

On the 3d of October, the enemy, thinking that he might 
strike a successful blow, in the absence of Gen. Lee and the 
larger portion of his command, came down from Cheat Moun¬ 
tain, five thousand strong, and attacked Jackson’s position on 
the Greenbrier. The attack was gallantly repulsed. The most 
unusual and brilliant incident of the battle was the conduct of 
our pickets, who held the entire column of the enemy in check 
for nearly an hour, pouring into the head of it a galling fire, 
not withdrawing until six pieces of artillery had opened briskly 
upon them, and full battalions of infantry were outflanking 
them on the right, and then retiring in such order, and taking 
such advantage of the ground, as to reach their camp with but 
a trifling loss. 

The action was continued by a severe artillery engagement, 
when, after four hours’ interchange of fire, in which we could 
not bring more than five pieces into action to return the fire of 
the enemy’s eight, he began to- threaten seriously our front and 
right, by heavy masses of his infantry. He had been repulsed 
at one point of the so-called river (in fact, a shallow stream, 
about twenty yards in width), by the 3d Arkansas regiment. 
As the designs of his column were fully developed, the 12th 
Georgia regiment were ordered to take position near the 
stream, while a battery commanded by Capt. Shumaker was 
directed to open fire upon the same column. The encounter 
was of but short duration. In a short time, the unmistakable 
evidences of the enemy’s rout became apparent. Distinctly 
could their officers be heard, with words of mingled command, 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


173 


remonstrance, and entreaty, attempting to rally their battalions 
into line, and to bring them to the charge, but they could not 
be induced to re-form their broken ranks, nor to emerge from 
the cover of the woods, in the direction of our fire. Rapidly, 
and in disorder, they returned into the turnpike, and soon 
thereafter the entire force of the enemy, artillery, infantry, 
and cavalry, retreated in confusion along the road and adjacent 
fields. 

The engagement lasted from seven in the morning to half¬ 
past two o’clock in the afternoon, at which time the enemy, 
who had come with artillery to bombard and demoralize the 
small force of Confederates; with infantry to storm their camp; 
with cavalry to rout and destroy them, and with four days' 
cooked rations in his haversacks, to prosecute a rapid march 
either towards Staunton, or towards Huntersville, was in pre¬ 
cipitate retreat back to his Cheat Mountain fastnesses. His loss 
in killed and wounded was estimated at from two hundred and 
fifty to three hundred. That of the Confederates was very in¬ 
considerable, not exceeding fifty in all. 

The approaching rigors of a winter in the mountains, gave 
warning of a speedy termination of the campaign in western 
Virginia, in which, in fact, we had no reason to linger for any 
fruits we had gained. The campaign was virtually abandoned 
by the government, in recalling Gen. Lee shortly after he had 
allowed the opportunity of a decisive battle with Rosecrans 
to escape him. He was appointed to take charge of the coast 
defences of South Carolina and Georgia. Gen. Wise was or¬ 
dered to report to Richmond; Gen. Loring was sent with his 
command to reinforce Gen. T. J. Jackson (“ Stonewall”), at 
Winchester; and Gen. H. R. Jaokson was transferred to duty 
in the South. With the exception of Gen. Floyd’s command, 
which still kept the field in the region of the Gauley, and a 
force of twelve hundred men on the Alleghany Mountain, the 
Confederate forces were withdrawn from western Virginia, 
after the plain failure of the campaign, and in the expectation 
that the rigors of the advancing winter season would induce 
the enemy to retire from the mountains to the Ohio. 

The last incident of battle in the campaign was a brilliant 
one. On the 13th of December, the whole of the enemy’s 
forces, under Gen. Reynolds, were brought out to attack the 


174 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


position commanded by Col. Edward Johnson, of Georgia, with 
his little force on the Alleghany. The enemy had been con¬ 
ducted to our position by a guide, a Union man. The Federals, 
on the flank, where the principal attack was made, numbered 
fully two thousand. They were gallantly met by our troops, 
who did not exceed three hundred at this time, being a portion 
of Hansborough’s battalion, the 31st Yirginia. These were 
reinforced by a few companies of Georgia troops, who came up 
with a shout, and joining the troops who had been forced back 
by overwhelming numbers, pressed upon the enemy with a 
desperate valor, and drove him from his almost impenetrable 
cover of fallen trees, brush, and timber. Many of the officers 
fought by the side of their men, and the enemy was pushed 
down the mountain, but with serious loss to the gallant little 
command. In describing the conduct of his men, Col. r Johnson 
wrote to the War Department, “I cannot speak in terms too 
exaggerated of the unflinching courage and dashing gallantry 
of those five hundred men, who contended from a quarter past 
7 a. m., until a quarter to 2 p. m., against an immensely supe¬ 
rior force of the enemy, and finally drove them from their 
position and pursued them a mile or more down the mountain.” 
The casualties in this small force amounted to twenty killed and 
ninety-six wounded. 

Gen. Floyd was the last of the Confederate generals to 
leave the field of active operations in western Yirginia. After 
the retreat of Rosecrans from Sewell Mountain, Gen. Floyd, 
at his own request, was sent with his brigade, by way of Rich¬ 
ard’s Ferry and Raleigh and Fayette Court House, to Cotton 
Hill, on the west side of the Kanawha. Here he again con¬ 
fronted Rosecrans and his whole force, encamped at Hamil¬ 
ton’s, at Hawk’s Uest, at Tompkins’ farm, and at Stodin’s, near 
the falls. Cotton Hill is in Fayette county, on the Kanawha, 
opposite the mouth of the Gauley; the Raleigh and Fayette 
turnpike passes over the hill, crossing the Kanawha river at 
the ferry below the falls, where it intersects the Kanawha turn¬ 
pike leading from Lewisburgto Charleston. From the position 
of Cotton Hill, the several camps of Rosecrans referred to 
could be distinctly seen, stretching to the distance of several 
miles. Gen. Floyd reached this point after a fatiguing march 
of eleven days, and occupied the landings of all the approaches 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


175 


to his position, at Bougen’s Ferry, Matthews’ Ferry, Mont¬ 
gomery’s Ferry at the falls, and Loop Creek. For three weeks, 
he continued to challenge the enemy to battle, firing at him 
across the river, annoying him considerably, cutting off his 
communication with the Yalley of the Kanawha, and holding 
in check his steamboats, which ran up to Loop Creek shoals at 
high tides. For several days, the communication of the Fed- 
erals, between their corps on the opposite sides of the Gauley, 
was entirely suspended. Gen. Floyd continued to challenge, 
insult, and defy the enemy with his little six-pounders at Cot¬ 
ton Hill, while Rosecrans, before he would accept the chal¬ 
lenge made to his already superior numbers, waited for heavy 
reinforcements from the Ohio. 

At last, being largely reinforced by the way of Charleston, 
Rosecrans planned an attack upon Cotton Hill, and moved by 
several distinctly indicated routes, namely, Miller’s, Montgom¬ 
ery’p, and Loop Creek Ferries, all concentrating at Fayetteville, 
nine miles from Cotton Hill. He expected the most brilliant 
results from his overpowering numbers and well-conceived de¬ 
signs, and was confident of cutting otf the retreat of Floyd and 
capturing his command. His force was fifteen thousand men ; 
that of Floyd did not exceed four thousand effective men, his 
ranks having been reduced by sickness, and the old story of 
promised reinforcements never having been realized to him. 
In these circumstances, Gen. Floyd made a retreat, the success 
of which was one of the most admirable incidents of a cam¬ 
paign, which he, at least, had already distinguished by equal 
measures of vigor, generalship, and gallantry. He effected his 
retreat in perfect order, fighting the enemy for twenty miles, 
and bringing off his force, including sick, with a loss of not 
more than five or six men. In this loss, however, was Col. 
Croghan, of Kentucky, a gallant young officer, and a son of the 
late Col. Croghan, who had obtained historical distinction in 
the Northwestern campaign of the War of 1812. The enemy) 
after pursuing Gen. Floyd for twenty miles, turned back in 
the direction of Fayette Court House, leaving him to retire at 
his leisure to southwestern Yirginia. It was from here that 
Gen. Floyd was transferred by the government to the now im¬ 
posing theatre of war in Tennessee and Kentucky. 

A minuter history of the campaign in western Yirginia than 


176 


THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAK. 


the plan of our work admits, would enable us to cite man} in¬ 
stances of individual gallantry and self-sacrifice. They would 
show the good conduct of small parties of Confederates on 
many occasions. In concluding the narrative of the general 
events of the war in western Virginia, we may add a very 
brief mention of some of these occurrences, which were only 
incidents of the campaign, which did not affect its general re¬ 
sults, but which showed instances of gallantry that, on a larger 
scale of execution, might have accomplished very important 
results. 

While the enemy had possession of the Kanawha Valley, 
Col. J. Lucius Davis’ cavalry, of the Wise Legion, was sent to 
Big Coal Biver, thirty-five miles from Fayette Court House. 
On reaching Big Coal, they gave rapid chase to a marauding 
party of Federals, and overtook them at Tony’s Creek, where a 
fight took place on the 11th September, which resulted in the 
total rout of the enemy, with a loss of about fifty killed and 
wounded, about the same number of prisoners, and the capture 
of all his provisions, munitions, &c. The Confederates sus¬ 
tained no loss whatever. The action lasted three hours, the 
remnant of the enemy having been pursued to a point within 
twelve miles of Charleston. The cavalry returned with their 
trophies, after having traversed, in twenty-four hours, a dis¬ 
tance of seventy-five or eighty miles over steep mountain trails, 
bridle-paths, and rocky fords. Col. J. Lucius Davis, in his re¬ 
port of the affair, speaks of Lieut.-col. Clarkson as the hero of 
the expedition. 

On the 25th September, Col. J. W. Davis, of Greenbrier, at 
the head of two hundred and twenty-five militia of Wyoming, 
Logan, and Boone counties, were attacked at Chapmansville, 
by an Ohio regiment commanded by Col. Pratt. The militia 
fought well, and were forcing the enemy from the field, when 
their gallant leader, Col. Davis, received a desperate, and as 
was thought at the time, a mortal wound. This unfortunate 
circumstance reversed the fortune of the field. The militia 
retreated and the enemy returned to the field. Col. Davis was 
taken by the Ohio troops, and remained in their hands till his 
partial recovery from his wounds, when he was paroled. The 
troops under Col. Davis lost but two killed and two wounded, 
while the loss of the Ohio troops in killed and wounded ex- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 177 

ceeded fifty, from the best information Col. D. was able to ob¬ 
tain. 

Col. Jenkins’ cavalry rendered efficient service in the Ka¬ 
nawha Yalley, and kept the enemy all the time uneasy. On 
the 9th November, they made a gallant dash into the town of 
Guyandotte, on the Ohio river, and routed the forces of the 
enemy stationed there, killing and wounding a number of them, 
and taking nearly one hundred prisoners. Federal reinforce¬ 
ments afterwards came up to the town, and on the pretence 
that the Confederates had been invited to attack it by resident 
Secessionists, gratified a monstrous and cowardly revenge by 
firing the larger portion of the town, although many of the in¬ 
habitants had come out to meet them on the banks of the river, 
waving white flags and signifying the most unqualified submis¬ 
sion. Women and children were turned into the street, many 
of them being forced to jump from the windows of their houses 
to* escape the flames. 

We have already adverted to the causes which contributed 
to make the campaign in western Virginia a failure. The 
cause which furnished the most popular excuse for its ineffec¬ 
tiveness—the disloyalty of the resident population—was, per¬ 
haps, the least adequate of them all. That disloyalty has been 
hugely magnified by those interested, in finding excuses in it 
for their own inefficiency and disappointment of public expec¬ 
tation. While Maryland, Kentucky, and other regions of the 
South, which not only submitted to Lincoln, but furnished him 
with troops, were not merely excused, but were the recipients 
of overflowing sympathy, and accounted by a charitable stretch 
of imagination “ sister States” of the Southern Confederacy, an 
odium, cruelly unjust, was inflicted upon western Virginia, 
despite of the fact that this region was enthralled by Federal 
troops, and, indeed, had never given such evidences of sympa¬ 
thy with the Lincoln government as had been manifested both 
by Maryland and Kentucky in their State elections, their contri¬ 
butions of troops, and other acts of deference to the authorities at 
Washington. It is a fact, that even now, u Governor” Pierpont, 
the creature of Lincoln, cannot get one-third of the votes in a sin¬ 
gle county in western Virginia. It is a fact, that the Northern 
journals admit that in a large portion of this country, it is unsafe 
for Federal troops to show themselves unless in large bodies. 


178 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


The unfortunate results of the campaign in western Virginia 
abandoned to the enemy a country of more capacity and gran¬ 
deur than, perhaps, any other of equal limits on this continent; 
remarkable for the immensity of its forests, the extent of its 
mineral resources, and the vastness of its water-power, and 
possessing untold wealth yet awaiting the coal-digger, the salt 
dealer, and the manufacturer. 

While the events referred to in the foregoing pages were 
transpiring in western Virginia, an inauspicious quiet, for 
months after the battle of Manassas, was maintained on the 
lines of the Potomac. A long, lingering Indian summer, with 
roads more hard and skies more beautiful than Virginia had 
seen for many a year, invited the enemy to advance. He 
steadily refused the invitation to a general action ; the advance 
of our lines was tolerated to Munson’s Hill, within a few miles 
of Alexandria, and opportunities were sought in vain by the 
Confederates, in heavy skirmishing, to engage the lines of the 
two armies. The gorgeous pageant on the Potomac, which, by 
the close of the year, had cost the Northern people three hun¬ 
dred millions of dollars, did not move. The “ Young Napo¬ 
leon” was twitted as a dastard in the Southern newspapers. 
They professed to discover in his unwillingness to fight the 
near achievement of their independence, when, however the 
fact was, the inactivity of the Federal forces on the northern 
frontier of Virginia only implied that immense preparations 
were going on in other directions, while the Southern people 
were complacently entertained wjth the parades, reviews, and 
pompous idleness of an army, the common soldiery of which 
wore white gloves on particular occasions of holiday display. 

THE BATTLE OF LEESBURG. 

The quiet, however, on the lines of the Potomac was broken 
by an episode in the month of October, which, without being 
important in its military results, added lustre to our arms. 
The incident referred to was the memorable action of Lees¬ 
burg, in which a small portion of the Potomac army drove an 
enemy four times their number from the soil of Virginia, kill¬ 
ing and taking prisoners a greater number than the whole 
Confederate force engaged. 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


179 


Gen. Stone having been persuaded that no important force 
of the Confederates remained along the Upper Potomac, and 
in obedience to orders from head-quarters, commenced his pas¬ 
sage of the river on Sunday, the 20th of October, at Harrison’s 
Island, a point of transit about six miles above Edwards’ 
Ferry, and nearly an equal distance from Leesburg. A force 
of five companies of Massachusetts troops, commanded by Col. 
Devins, effected a crossing at the ferry named above, and, a 
few hours thereafter, Col. Baker, who took command of all the 
Federal forces on the Virginia side, having been ordered by 
Stone to push the Confederates from Leesburg and hold the 
place, crossed the river at Conrad’s Ferry, a little south of 
Harrison’s Island. 

The brigade of Gen. Evans (one of the heroic and conspicuous 
actors in the bloody drama of Manassas), which had occupied 
Leesburg, consisted of four regiments, viz.: the 8th Virginia, 
the 13th, the 17th, and the 18th Mississippi. Having a position 
on Goose Creek, they awaited the approach of the overwhelm¬ 
ing numbers of the enemy, the force which he had thrown 
across the river being between seven and eight thousand strong. 
The enemy had effected a crossing both at Edwards’ Ferry, and 
Ball’s Bluff, and preparations were made to meet him in both 
positions. Lieut.-col. Jenifer, with four of the Mississippi 
companies, confronted the immediate approach of the enemy in 
the direction of Leesburg; Col. Hunton, with his regiment, the 
8th Virginia, was afterwards ordered to his support, and, about 
noon, both commands w^ere united, and became hotly engaged 
with the enemy in their strong position in the woods. 

Watching carefully the action, Gen. Evans saw the enemy 
were constantly being reinforced, and at half-past two o’clock 
p. m., ordered Col. Burt to march his regiment, the 18th Mis¬ 
sissippi, and attack the left flank of the enemy, while Colonels 
Hunton and Jenifer attacked him in front. On arriving at his 
position, Col. Burt was received with a tremendous fire from 
the enemy, concealed in a ravine, and was compelled to divide 
his regiment to stop the flank movement of the enemy. 

At this time, about three o’clock, finding the enemy were in 
large force, Gen. Evans ordered Col. Featherston, with his 
regiment, the 17th Mississippi, to repair, at double quick, to 
the support of Col. Burt, where he arrived in twenty minutes, 


180 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


and the action became general along the whole line of the 
Confederates, and was hot and brisk for more than two hours. 

The Confederates engaged in the action numbered less than 
eighteen hundred men; the 13th Mississippi, with six pieces of 
artillery, being held in reserve. The troops engaged on our 
side fought with almost savage desperation. The tiring was 
irregular. Our troops gave a yell and volley; then loaded and 
fired at will for a few minutes; then gave another yell and 
volley. For two hours, the enemy was steadily driven near the 
banks of the Potomac. The Federal commander, Col. Baker, 
had fallen at the head of his column, and his body was with 
difficulty recovered by his command. As the enemy continued 
to fall back, Gen. Evans ordered his entire force to charge and 
drive him into the river. 

The rout of the enemy near the bluffs of the river was ap¬ 
palling. The crossing of the river had gone on until seven 
thousand five hundred men, according to the report of Gen. 
Stone, were thrown across it. Some of these never saw the 
field of battle. They had to climb the mud of the bluff, drag¬ 
ging their dismounted arms after them, before they could reach 
the field, expecting to find there a scene of victory. The diffi¬ 
cult ascent led them to a horrible Golgotha. The forces that 
had been engaged in front were already in retreat; behind 
them rolled the river, deep and broad, which many of them 
were never to repass; before them glared the foe. 

The spectacle was that of a whole army retreating, tum¬ 
bling, rolling, leaping down the steep heights—the enemy fol¬ 
lowing them, killing and taking prisoners. Col. Devins, of 
the 15th Massachusetts regiment, left his command, and swam 
the river on horseback. The one boat in the channel between 
the Yirginia shore and the island was speedily filled with the 
fugitives. A thousand men thronged the banks. Muskets, 
coats, and every thing were thrown aside, and all were des¬ 
perately trying to escape. Hundreds plunged into the rapid 
current, and the shrieks of the drowning added to the horror 
of sounds and sights. The Confederates kept up their fire 
from the cliff above. All was terror, confusion, and dismay. 
One of the Federal officers, at the head of some companies, 
charged up the hill. A moment later, and the same officer, 
perceiving the hopelessness of the situation, waved a white 


THE FIEST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


181 


handkerchief and surrendered the main body of his regiment. 
Other portions of the column surrendered, hut the Confed¬ 
erates kept up their fire upon those who tried to cross, and 
many, not drowned in the river, were shot in the act of 
swimming. 

The last act of the tragedy was the most sickening and ap¬ 
palling of them all. A flat-boat, on returning to the island, 
was laden with the mangled, the weary, and the dying. The 
quick and the dead were huddled together in one struggling, 
mangled mass, and all went down together in that doleful river, 
never again to rise. 

The Northern newspapers, with characteristic and persistent 
falsehood, pretended that the Leesburg affair was nothing— 
a mere reconnoissance, in which the Federals accomplished 
their object—a skirmish, in which they severely punished the 
“ rebels”—an affair of outposts, in which they lost a few men, 
nothing like so many as the “ rebels,” &c. But the truth at 
last came out, stark and horrible. The defeat of Leesburg 
was named in the Federal Congress as “most humiliating,” 
“ a great national calamity,” and as another laurel added to 
the chaplet of the “ rebellion.” 

The Federal soldiers who had suffered most severely in this 
action were from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. 
They had given an exhibition of cowardice, quite equal, in 
degree at least, to its display at Manassas. There were no 
instances among them of desperate stubbornness, of calm 
front, of heroic courage. There was but one tint of glory to 
gild the bloody picture, and that was in the circumstance of 
the fall of their gallant commander, Col. Baker, who had been 
shot several times through the body, and, at last, through the 
head, in his desperate and conspicuous effort to rally his broken 
forces. 

Col. Baker was United States senator from Oregon. He 
had served with distinction in the Mexican war; was since a 
member of Congress from Missouri; emigrated to California, 
where he long held a leading position at the bar, and, being 
disappointed in an election to Congress from that State, re¬ 
moved to Oregon, where he was returned United States sena¬ 
tor to Washington. In the opening of the war, he raised what 
was called a “ California” regiment, recruited in New York 


182 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


and New Jersey, and at the last session of the Federal Con¬ 
gress had distinguished himself by his extreme views of the 
subjugation of the South, and its reduction to a “ territorial” 
condition. He was a man of many accomplishments, of more 
than ordinary gifts of eloquence, and, outside of his political 
associations, was respected for his bravery, chivalry, and ad¬ 
dress. 

Our loss in the action of Leesburg, out of a force of 1,709 
men, was 153 in killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy 
was 1,300 killed, wounded, and drowned; 710 prisoners cap¬ 
tured, among them twenty-two comnaissioned officers; besides 
1,500 stand of arms and three pieces of cannon taken. This 
brilliant victory was achieved on our side by the musket alone, 
over an enemy who never ventured to emerge from the cover, 
or to expose himself to an artillery fire. 

The battle of Leesburg was followed by no important conse¬ 
quences on the Potomac. It was a brilliant and dramatic 
incident; it adorned our arms; and it showed a valor, a dem¬ 
onstration of which, on a grander scale and in larger num¬ 
bers, might easily have re-enacted on a new field the scenes ot 
Manassas. But, like the Manassas victory, that of Leesburg 
bore no fruits but those of a confidence on the part of the 
South, which was pernicious, because it was overweening and 
inactive, and a contempt for its enemy, which was injurious, 
in proportion as it exceeded the limits of truth and justice, 
and reflected the self-conceits of fortune. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


183 


CHAPTER YI 1 . 


Tlie Position and Policy of Kentucky in the War.—Kentucky Chivalry.—Reminis¬ 
cences of the “ Dark and Bloody Ground.”—Protection of the Northwest by Ken- 
tucky.—How the Debt of Gratitude has been repaid.—A Glance at the Hartford 
Convention.—The Gubernatorial Canvass of 1859 in Kentucky.—Division of Parties.— 
Other Causes for the Disloyalty of Kentucky.—The “Pro-Slavery and Union” Resolu¬ 
tions.—The “ State Guard.”—General Buckner.—The Pretext of “ Neutrality,” and 
what it meant.—The Kentucky Refugees.—A Reign ot Terror.—Judge Monroe in 
Nashville.—General Breckinridge.—Occupation of Columbus by General Polk.—The 
Neutrality of Kentucky first broken by the North.—General Buckner at Bowling 
Green.—Camp “ Dick Robinson.”—The “ Home Guard.”—The Occupation of Colum¬ 
bus by the Confederates explained.—Cumberland Gap.—General Zollicoffer’s Procla¬ 
mation.—The Afi'air of Barboursville.—“ The Wild-Cat Stampede.”—The Virginia 
and Kentucky Border.—The Affair of Piketon.—Suffering of our Troops at Pound 
Gap.—The “Union Party” in East Tennessee.—Keelan, the Hero of Strawberry 
Plains.—The Situation on the Waters of the Ohio and Tennessee.— The Battle of 

Belmont. _Weakness of our Forces in Kentucky.—General Albert Sidney Johnston.— 

Inadequacy of his Forces at Bowling Green.—Neglect and Indifference of the Con¬ 
federate Authorities.—A Crisis imminent—Admission of Kentucky into the Southern 
Confederacy. 

If, a few months back, any one had predicted that in an 
armed contest between the INorth and the South, the State ot 
Kentucky would be found acting with the former, and abetting 
and assisting a war upon States united with her by community 
of institutions, of interests, and of blood, he would, most prob¬ 
ably, in any Southern company in which such a speech was 
adventured, have been hooted at as a fool, 01 chastised as a 
slanderer. The name of Kentucky had been synonymous with 
the highest types of Southern chivalry; her historical record 
was adorned by the knightly deeds, the hardy adventuies, the 
romantic courage of her sons; and Virginia had seen the State 
which she had peopled with the flower of her youth grow up, 
not only to the full measure of filial virtue, but with the orna¬ 
ment, it was thought, of even a prouder and bolder spirit than 
flowed in the blood of the Old Dominion. 

War discovers truths in the condition of society which would 
never otherwise have been known. It often shows a spiiit of 
devotion where it has been least expected; it decides the claims 


184 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


of superior patriotism and superior courage often in favor of 
communities which have laid less claim to these qualities than 
others; and it not infrequently exposes disloyalty, rottenness, or 
apathy on the part of those who had formerly superior reputa¬ 
tion for attachment to the cause which they are found to de¬ 
sert or to assail. 

It is not to be supposed for a moment, that while the posi¬ 
tion of Kentucky, like that of Maryland, was one of reproach, 
it is to mar the credit due to that portion of the people of each, 
who, in the face of instant difficulties, and at the expense of 
extraordinary sacrifices, repudiated the decision of their States 
to remain under the Federal government, and expatriated 
themselves, that they might espouse the cause of liberty in the 
South. The honor due such men is in fact increased by the 
consideration that their States remained in the Union, and 
compelled them to fly their homes, that they might testify their 
devotion to the South and her cause of independence. Still, 
the justice of history must be maintained. The demonstra¬ 
tions of sympathy with the South on the part of the States re¬ 
ferred to—Maryland and Kentucky—considered either in pro¬ 
portion to what was offered the Lincoln government by these 
States, or with respect to the numbers of their population, w T ere 
sparing and exceptional; and although these demonstrations 
on the part of Kentucky, from the great and brilliant names 
associated with them, were perhaps even more honorable and 
more useful than the examples of Southern spirit offered by 
Maryland, it is unquestionably, though painfully true, that the 
great body of the people of Kentucky were the active allies of 
Lincoln, and the unnatural enemies of those united to them by 
lineage, blood, and common institutions. 

A brief review of some of the most remarkable circum¬ 
stances in the history of Kentucky is not inappropriate to the 
subject of the existing war. 

Kentucky has been denominated “the Dark and Bloody 
Ground” of the savage aborigines. It never was the habita¬ 
tion of any nation or tribe of Indians ; but from the period of 
the earliest aboriginal traditions to the appearance of the white 
man on its soil, Kentucky was the field of deadly conflict be¬ 
tween the Northern and Southern warriors of the forest. 

When, shortly after the secession of the American colonies 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


185 


from tlie British empire, this contested land was penetrated by 
the bold adventurous white men of Carolina and Virginia, who 
constituted the third party for dominion, its title of the “Dark 
and Bloody Ground” was appropriately continued. And when, 
after the declaration of American independence, Great Brit 
ain, with a view to the subjugation of the United States, form¬ 
ed an alliance with the Indian savages, and assigned to them 
the conduct of the war upon all our western frontier, the ter¬ 
ritory of Kentucky became still more emphatically the Dark 
and Bloody Ground. Nor did the final treaty of peace be¬ 
tween Great Britain and the United States bring peace to 
Kentucky. The government of Great Britain failed to fulfil 
its obligations to surrender the western posts from which their 
savage allies had been supplied with the munitions of war, but 
still held them, and still supplied the Indians with arms and 
ammunition, inciting them to their murderous depredations 
upon the western border. 

This hostile condition continued in Kentucky until the cele¬ 
brated treaty of Jay, and the final victory over the savage en¬ 
emy achieved by General Wayne, and the consequent treaty 
of peace which he concluded with them in 1795. By this 
treaty of peace, the temple of Janus was closed in Kentucky 
for the first time in all her history and tradition. 

The battles in these wars with the savage enemy were not 
all in Kentucky, nor were they for the defence of the territory 
of her people only, but chiefly for the defence of the inhabit¬ 
ants of Ohio, who were unable to protect themselves against 
their barbarous foes. How this debt has been paid by the de¬ 
scendants of these Ohio people, the ravages of the existing war 
sufficiently demonstrate. 

Peace was continued in Kentucky for about twenty years. 
There were commotions and grand enterprises which we cannot 
even mention here. But they were all terminated by the pur¬ 
chase of Louisiana by Mr. Jefferson in 180$. The ratification 
of the treaty by which this vast southern and western do¬ 
minion was acquired at the price of fifteen millions of dollars, 
was opposed by the Northern politicians, whose descendants 
now seek to subjugate the people of the South, at the cost ol 
a thousand millions of dollars, and of a monstrous, unnatural, 
and terrible expenditure of blood. 


186 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


In the war of 1812 with Great Britain, the surrender of 
Hull having exposed the Michigan Territory and all the north- 
ern border of Ohio to the invasion of the British and the 
savages, who were now again the allies of that government, 
Kentucky sent forth her volunteers for the defence of her as¬ 
sailed Northern neighbors; and when so many of her gallant 
sons were sacrificed upon the bloody plains of Raisin, the Leg¬ 
islature of Kentucky requested the governor of the State to 
take the field, and at the head of his volunteer army to go 
forth and drive back the enemy. The request was promptly 
complied with. It was the army of Kentucky that expelled 
the savages from all Ohio and Michigan, and pursuing them 
into Canada, achieved over them and the British upon the 
Thames a victory more important than had been yet won upon 
land in that war, thus giving peace and security to Ohio and 
all the northwestern territory, whose people were confessedly 
powerless for their own defence. 

It is these people, protected by the arms and early chivaliy 
of Kentucky, who have now made her soil the Dark and 
Bloody Ground of an iniquitous civil war, waged not only upon 
a people bearing the common name of American citizens, but 
upon the eternal and sacred principles of liberty itself. In 
these references to the early history of Kentucky we must be 
brief. In indicating, however, the lessons of rebuke they give 
to the North with respect to the existing war, we must not 
omit to mention that in the war of 1812, in which Kentucky 
covered herself with such well-deserved and lasting glory, the 
New England States stood with the enemy, and the body of 
their politicians had resolved upon negotiation with Great 
Britain for a separate peace, and had, in fact, appointed a 
Convention to be assembled at Hartford, to carry into effect 
what would have been virtually a secession from the United 
States, and the assumption of neutrality between the belliger¬ 
ents, if not an alliance with the public enemy. These facts 
are not fully recorded in history, but they might be well col¬ 
lected from the public documents and journals of the day. In¬ 
deed, they are well known to men yet living in our land. The 
schemes of the New England traitors were defeated only by the 
battle of Orleans, and the consequent treaty of peace. Upon the 
happening of these events, the conspirators abandoned their 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


187 


Convention projet y and denied that they had ever contemplated 
any thing revolutionary or treasonable. The whole matter was 
suffered to pass into oblivion. The conspirators were treated 
by the government and people of the United States as William 
the Third treated those around his throne who, within his 
knowledge, had conspired against him, and had actually served 
the public enemy of England. It was known in each case that 
the conspirators were controlled by their selfish interests, and 
that the best mode of managing them, was to cause them to see 
that it wras to their interest to be faithful to their government. 
It needs no comment to indicate with wdiat grace the vehement 
denunciation of the secession of the Southern States from a 
Union which had been prostituted alike to the selfishness of 
politicians and the passion of fanatics, comes from a people 
who had been not only domestic rebels, but allies to the foreign 
enemy in the war of 1812. 

In tracing the political connections of Kentucky in the pres¬ 
ent war, it will be sufficient for our purposes to start at the 
election of its governor in 1859. Down to that period the 
body of the partisans now upholding the Lincoln government 
had been an emancipation party in the State. This party had 
lately suffered much in popularity. In the election of 1859, they 
determined to consult popularity, and took open pro-slavery 
ground. The State Eights candidate (Magoffin) was elected. 

By their adroit movement, however, the Anti-State Eights 
party had made some advance in the confidence of the people, 
which availed them in the more important contests that fol¬ 
lowed. In the Presidential election of 1860 they supported 
Mr. Bell, and thus succeeded in their object of gaining the as¬ 
cendency in the councils of the State. Emancipationists were 
urged to support Mr. Bell, upon the ground that from his ante¬ 
cedents and present position they had more to expect from him' 
than from his principal competitor in the race in Kentucky, 
while the people at large were persuaded to support Mr. Bell 
as the candidate of the friends of “ the Union, the Constitution,, 
and the Laws.” 

The Anti-State Eights party (at least they may be known- 
for the present by this convenient denomination), succeeded in 
carrying the State by a large plurality. They commenced at 
an early day to combat the movements of secession in the 

13 


188 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


South. Popular assemblies and conventions were called to 
pledge themselves to the support of the Union in every con¬ 
tingency. The party, as represented in these assemblies, united 
all the friends of Mr. Bell, and the great body of those of Mr. 
Douglas and of Mr. Guthrie. By this combination an organi¬ 
zation was effected which was able to control and direct public 
opinion in the subsequent progress of events. 

It is certainly defective logic, or, at best, an inadequate ex¬ 
planation, which attributes the subserviency of a large portion 
of the people of Kentucky to the views of the Lincoln govern¬ 
ment to the perfidy of a party or the adroitness of its manage¬ 
ment, However powerful may be the machinery of party, it 
certainly has not the power of belying public sentiment for 
any considerable length of time. The persistent adhesion of a 
large portion of the Kentucky people to the Northern cause 
must be attributed to permanent causes; and among these 
w T ere, first, an essential unsoundness on the slavery question, 
under the influences of the peculiar philosophy of Henry Clay, 
who, like every great man, left an impress upon his Slate 
which it remained for future even more than contemporary 
generations to attest; and, second, the mercenary consider¬ 
ations of a trade with both North and South, to which the 
State of Kentucky was thought to be especially convenient. 
These suggestions may at least assist to the understanding of 
that development of policy in Kentucky which we are about 
to relate. 

On the meeting of the Legislature of Kentucky, after the 
election of Lincoln, the party in the interest of the North suc¬ 
ceeded in obtaining the passage by that body of a singular set 
of resolutions, which, by a curious compost of ideas, were 
called “ pro-slavery and Union” resolutions. They denounced 
secession, without respect to any cause which might justify the 
measure, deprecated any w T ar between the North and the South, 
and avowed the determination of Kentucky to occupy in such 
an event a position of perfect neutrality. 

At its regular session in 1859-60, the Legislature had or¬ 
ganized an active body of volunteer militia, denominated the 
State Guard, and General Buckner had been appointed its 
highest officer. This army, as it might be called, was found to 
consist of the finest officers and best young men in the State. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


189 


It was necessarily, by the provisions of the Constitution, under 
the command of the governor; but as Governor Magoffin was 
supposed to be a Southern Rights man, and the fact appearing 
that nearly all of the State Gkard were favorable to the same 
cause, and that they could not be made the soldiers of the 
despotic government of the North, he was in effect deprived 
of their command, and measures were taken for forcing out of 
their hands the public arms with which they had been fur¬ 
nished, and for the organization of a new corps, to be com¬ 
manded by the officers and partisans of Abraham Lincoln. In 
the mean time, as if to make their professed determination of 
neutrality effective, the Legislature proceeded to arm with 
muskets their “ Home Guards,” as their new army was called. 
With this programme before the people, the Legislature took a 
recess, probably to await the progress of events, when the 
mask of neutrality might be thrown off, and their real purposes 
might safely be announced to the people. 

Gov. Magoffin’s refusal to furnish troops to answer the 
requisition of the Federal government (to which reference has 
already been made in another part of this work), appeared at 
the time to meet with the approval of the entire people of Ken¬ 
tucky. The enemies of the South acquiesced in the decision 
of the governor only until the period arrived when the farce 
of neutrality might be conveniently broken, and the next step 
ventured, which would be union with the North. With the 
pretence of neutrality, and the seductive promises of a trade 
with both belligerents, which would enrich Kentucky and fill 
her cities with gold, a considerable portion of the people were 
held blinded or willingly entertained, while the purposes of the 
Lincoln government with respect to their State were being 
steadily fulfilled. 

In the election of members of the Congress called by Lin¬ 
coln to meet in special session on the 4th of July, 1861, men 
of Northern principles were elected from every district in 
Kentucky save one ; and in the same condition of the public 
mind, the members of the Legislature were elected in August, 
the result being the return of a large majority of members os¬ 
tensibly for the purpose of maintaining the ground of neu¬ 
trality, but with what real designs was soon discovered. The 
election of the Lincoln rulers having been thus accomplished. 


190 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


the measures all the time contemplated and intended were 
easily put in course of execution. In a short time every State 
Rights newspaper was suspended ; every public man standing 
in defence of the South was threatened with arrest and prose¬ 
cution ; and the raising of a volunteer corps for the defence 
of the South was totally suppressed. 

Immediately after the declaration of war by the Lincoln 
government, a number of young men in Kentucky, actuated 
by impulses of patriotism, and attesting the spirit of the an¬ 
cient chivalry of their State, had commenced raising volunteer 
companies in the State for the Confederate service. They 
passed South in detachments of every number. This emigra¬ 
tion v-as at first tolerated by the Unionists, if not actually de¬ 
sired by them, for the purpose of diminishing the opposition in 
the State to their sinister designs. By the removal of its mem¬ 
bers, and by the acts of the Legislature already mentioned, the 
admirable army of the “ State Guard of Kentucky” was to¬ 
tally disorganized, and the command of it virtually taken from 
Governor Magoffin and General Buckner, and placed in the 
hands of the political partisans of the Lincoln government. 
General Buckner could not long occupy such a position, and 
therefore, as soon as practicable, he resigned his office, re¬ 
nounced the Lincoln government, and placed ^himself under 
the Confederate flag. The value of his accession to the South¬ 
ern cause was justly appreciated, and he was speedily ap¬ 
pointed a brigadier-general in the provisional army of the Con¬ 
federacy. 

The encouragement to emigration was not long continued by 
the party in power in Kentucky. It was determined by the 
Lincoln government to make examples of the small party re¬ 
maining in Kentucky who sympathized with the South, and to 
arrest at once every public and influential man in the State 
known to be hostile to the North, or to the despotic purposes 
of the government at Washington. Ex-Governor Morehead 
was at a dead hour of the night arrested in his own house, a 
few miles from Louisville, in the presence of his afflicted 
family, by the Lincoln police, and hurried through the city and 
over the river, and out of his State and district, in violation of 
all law; and the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus was prac¬ 
tically denied him in a mode which, at any period in the last 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


191 


two hundred years, would have aroused all England into com¬ 
motion. The high-handed act, it might have been supposed, 
would have aroused Kentucky also to a flame of indignation at 
any other period since it became the habitation of white men. 
The people, however, seemed to be insensible, and the outrage 
was allowed to pass with no public demonstration of its disap¬ 
proval. Encouraged by its experience of the popular subser¬ 
viency in Kentucky to its behests, it was in convenient time 
determined by the Lincoln government to arrest or drive off 
from the State every prominent opponent of its despotic au¬ 
thority. It was determined at Louisville that John 0. Breck- 
enridge, late Yice-President of the United States, Col. G. W. 
Johnson, a prominent citizen, T. B. Monroe, Jr., Secretary of 
State, William Preston, late Minister to Spain, Thomas B. 
Monroe, Sr., for about thirty years District Judge of the 
United States, Col. Humphrey Marshall, ex-member of Con¬ 
gress, and a distinguished officer in the Mexican war, Capt. 
John Morgan (since “ the Marion” of Kentucky), and a num¬ 
ber of other distinguished citizens in different parts of the 
State, should be arrested at the same hour, and consigned to 
prison, or driven from their homes by the threats of such a 
fate. It is supposed that some of the Lincoln men, and per¬ 
haps some officers of the government, preferred the latter 
alternative, especially in respect to some of the individuals 
named. However this may be, it happened that all of them 
escaped, some in one direction, and some in another. 

The venerable Judge Monroe, on his arrival at Bowling 
Green, whence he was on his next day’s journey to pass out of 
his State and his district, executed in duplicate, and left to be 
transmitted by different modes of conveyance, his resignation 
of the office of Judge of the United States for Kentucky ; and 
in conformity to the general expectation at the time, he placed 
upon historic record the declaration of his expatriation of him¬ 
self from the dominion of the despotic government of Lincoln, 
and adopted himself a citizen of the Southern Confederacy. 
The proceedings occurred in the Confederate Court of Nash¬ 
ville on the 3d of October. The scene of the renunciation of 
allegiance to the government that would have enslaved him, by 
this venerable jurist, who had been driven from a long-cher¬ 
ished home, and was now on his way to the State of Virginia 


192 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

whose honored soil held the sacred ashes of a dozen genera¬ 
tions of his ancestors, was one of peculiar augustness and in¬ 
terest. The picture of the scene alone was sufficient to illus¬ 
trate and adorn the progress of a great revolution. It was 
that of a venerable patriot, a man of one of the greatest his¬ 
torical names on the continent, just escaped from the minions 
of the despot, who had driven him from a State in which he 
had lived, the light of the law, irreproachable as a man, be¬ 
loved by his companions, honored by his profession, and vener¬ 
able in years, voluntarily and proudly abjuring an allegiance 
which no longer returned to him the rights of a citizen, but 
would have made him an obsequious slave; and with all the 
dignity of one thus honored and respected, and conscious of 
his rectitude, appearing in the presence of a Confederate court 
of justice, and with the pure eloquence of truth, offering the 
remaining years of his life to the service of the new govern¬ 
ment, which had arisen as the successor of the old Union, as it 
was in its purer and brighter days. 

Mr. Breckenridge reached Nashville by a very circuitous 
route, a few days after his departure from Lexington, and after 
a brief sojourn in the former place, proceeded to Bowling 
Green, and there entered into a compact with a number of his 
old constituents who had taken refuge in the camp of General 
Buckner, that they would take up their arms in defence of the 
rights and liberties of their country, and never lay them down 
till the invader was driven from the soil of Kentucky. Shortly 
afterwards, he received the appointment of brigadier-general 
in the army of the Confederate States, and was assigned to the 
command of a brigade of his fellow-citizens of Kentucky. Col. 
Humphrey Marshall received, at the same time, the appoint¬ 
ment of brigadier-general, and was assigned to the district of 
southeastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. Colonel 
Johnson was subsequently chosen Provisional Governor of 
Kentucky by the friends of the Confederate government in 
that State. 

To reconcile the people of Kentucky to the Lincoln govern¬ 
ment, its partisans had told them at the outset that they had 
the right to insist upon the strict observance of neutrality. As 
events progressed, they ascribed the violation of Kentucky’s 
neutrality to the acts of the Southern government, in the face 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


193 


of facts about wliicb tliere can be no dispute. The facts are, 
that the Federal forces were preparing to take possession of 
Columbus and Paducah, regarding them as important positions; 
and because Gen. Polk anticipated them and got prior posses¬ 
sion of Columbus, they charged the Confederates with the re¬ 
sponsibility of the first invasion of Kentucky. The Federals 
had commissioned Gen. Rouseau, at Louisville, to raise a bri¬ 
gade for the invasion of the South, but while the recruits were 
enlisted in Louisville, the camp was kept at Jeffersonville, on 
the Indiana side of the river, until the Lincoln commander be¬ 
came satisfied that the temper of the people of Louisville would 
tolerate a parade of Northern soldiers on their streets. Then, 
and not till then, were the Northern soldiers boldly marched 
across the State in the direction of Nashville. Gen. Buckner 
took possession of the railroad, and stationed himself at Bowl¬ 
ing Green, in Southern Kentucky, about thirty miles from the 
Tennessee line. The partisans of Lincoln, still determined to 
blind the people by all sorts of false representations, established 
a camp called “ Dick Robinson,” near Lexington, and there 
made up an army comprised of recruits from Ohio, vagabonds 
from Kentucky, and Andrew-Johnson men from Tennessee. 
They insisted that no invasion was contemplated, that their 
forces were merely a “ Home Guard” organization of a purely 
defensive character. They did not hesitate, however, to rob 
the arsenals of the United States of their muskets, bayonets, 
and cannon, and place them at the disposal of such infamous 
leaders as George D. Prentice, Tom Ward, and Garrett Davis. 
With these arms, “ Dick Robinson’s” camp was replenished, 
and at this memorable spot of the congregation of the most 
villanous characters, an army was raised in Kentucky for the 
invasion of the South. 

The causes which led to the occupation of Kentucky by the 
Confederate States were plain and abundant. Finding that 
their own territory was about to be invaded through Kentucky, 
and that many of the people of that State, after being deceived 
into a mistaken security, were unarmed, and in danger of be- . 
ing subjugated by the Federal forces, the Confederate armies 
were marched into that State to repel the enemy, and prevent 
their occupation of certain strategic points which would have 
given them great advantages in the contest—a step which was 


194 


THE FIKST YEAE. OF THE WAE. 


justified, not only by the necessities of self-defence on the part 
of the Confederate States, hut also by a desire to aid the peo¬ 
ple of Kentucky. It was never intended by the Confederat 
government to conquer or coerce the people of that State \ but, 
on the contrary, it was declared by our generals that they 
would withdraw their troops if the Federal government would 
do likewise. Proclamation was also made of the desire to re¬ 
spect the neutrality of Kentucky, and the intention to abide by 
the wishes of her people, as soon as they were free to express 
their opinions. 

TJpon the occupation of Columbus by the Confederates, in 
the early part of September, the Legislature of Kentucky 
adopted resolutions calling upon them, through Governor 
Magoffin, to retire. General Polk, who was in command of 
the Confederates at Columbus, had already published a proc¬ 
lamation, clearly explaining his position. He declared in this 
proclamation, that the Federal government having disregarded 
the neutrality of Kentucky, by establishing camps and depots 
of armies, and by organizing military companies within their 
territory, and by constructing a military work on the Missouri 
shore, immediately opposite and commanding Columbus, evi¬ 
dently intended to cover the landing of troops for the seizure 
of that town, it had become a military necessity, involving the 
defence of the territory of the Confederate States, that the Con¬ 
federate forces should occupy Columbus in advance. 

The act of Gen. Polk found the most abundant justification 
in the history of the concessions granted to the Federal govern¬ 
ment by Kentucky ever since the war began. Since the elec¬ 
tion of Lincoln, she had allowed the seizure in her ports (Pa¬ 
ducah) of property of citizens of the Confederate States. She 
had, by her members in the Congress of the TJnited States, 
voted supplies of men and money to carry on the war against 
the Confederate States. She had allowed the Federal govern¬ 
ment to cut timber from her forests for the purpose of building 
armed boats for the invasion of the Southern States. She was 
permitting to be enlisted in her territory troops, not only from 
her own citizens, but from the citizens of other States, for the 
purpose of being armed and used in offensive warfare against 
the Confederate States. At camp “ Dick Robinson,” in the 
county of Garrard, it was said that there were already ten 


195 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR*\ 

thousand troops, in which men from Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois were mustered with Kentuckians into the service 
of the United States, and armed by the government for the 
avowed purpose of giving aid to the disaffected in one of the 
Confederate States, and of carrying out the designs of that gov¬ 
ernment for their subjugation. When Gen. Polk took posses¬ 
sion of Columbus, he found that the enemy, in formidable 
numbers, were in position on the opposite bank of the river, 
with their cannon turned upon Columbus, that many of the 
citizens had fled in terror, and that not a word of assurance of 
safety or protection had been addressed to them. 

In reply to the demand made through Governor Magoffin 
for the withdrawal of the Confederate troops from Kentucky, 
Gen. Polk offered to comply on condition that the State would 
agree that the troops of the Federal government be withdrawn 
simultaneously, with a guaranty (which he would give recip¬ 
rocally for the Confederate government) that the Federal 
troops should not be allowed to enter, or occupy any part of 
Kentucky in the future. This proposition for a simultaneous 
withdrawal of forces, was derided by the partisans of Lincoln 
in Kentucky and elsewhere. 

Gen. Polk had taken possession of Columbus on the 4th of 
September. The Federals were then occupying Paducah, at 
the mouth of the Tennessee river. The town of Cairo, at the 
mouth of the Ohio, had been previously occupied by a strong 
Federal force. New Madrid, on the Missouri side of the Mis¬ 
sissippi, was occupied by Southern troops under the command 
of Gen. Jeff. Thompson. 

Early in the summer, it was known that the Federals were 
threatening the invasion of East Tennessee by way of Cumber¬ 
land Gap. To counteract their designs, the Confederate govern¬ 
ment sent Brigadier-general Zollicoffer, with a force of several 
thousand men, by way of Knoxville, East Tennessee, to the 
point threatened. On the 14th September, Gen. Zollicoffer 
telegraphed Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, as follows: “ The 
safety of Tennessee requiring, I occupy the mountain passes at 
Cumberland, and the three long mountains in Kentucky. For 
weeks, I have known that the Federal commander at Hoskins’ 
Cross Roads was threatening the invasion of East Tennessee, 
and ruthlessly urging our people to destroy our own road and 


196 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


bridges. I postponed this precautionary movement until the 
despotic government at Washington, refusing to recognize the 
neutrality of Kentucky, has established formidable camps in 
the centre and other parts of the State, with the view, first to 
subjugate your gallant State, and then ourselves. Tennessee 
feels, and has ever felt, towards Kentucky as a twin-sister; 
their people are as one people in kindred, sympathy, valor, and 
patriotism. We have felt, and still feel, a religious respect for 
Kentucky’s neutrality. We will respect it as long as our safety 
will permit. If the Federal force will now withdraw from their 
menacing position, the force under my command shall immedi¬ 
ately be withdrawn.” 

At the same time Gen. Zollicoffer issued an order setting: 
forth that he came to defend the soil of a sister Southern State 
against an invading foe, and that no citizen of Kentucky was 
to be molested in person or property, whatever his political 
opinions, unless found in arms against the Confederate govern¬ 
ment, or giving aid and comfort to the enemy by his counsels. 
On the 19th September, a portion of Gen. Zollicoffer’s com¬ 
mand advanced to Barboursville, in Kentucky, and dispersed 
a camp of some fifteen hundred Federals, without any serious 
struggle. He continued to advance cautiously in the direction 
of Somerset, driving the enemy before him. A large Federal 
force, chiefly from Ohio and Indiana, was sent forward to meet 
him. This expedition was speedily brought to a disgraceful 
and ruinous conclusion. Before getting near enough to Zolli¬ 
coffer to confront him, Gen. Schoepff, the commander of the 
Yankee expedition, was induced to believe that Gen. Hardee 
was advancing from Bowling Green on his flank. What was 
known as the “ Wild Cat Stampede” ensued. The retreat of 
the panic-stricken soldiers, which for miles was performed at 
the double-quick, rivalled the agile performances at Bull Eun. 
For many miles the route of the retreat was covered with 
broken wagons, knapsacks, dead horses, and men who had sunk 
by the wayside from exhaustion. The flight of the Federals 
w T as continued for two days, although there was no enemy 
near them. Such was the result of the first expedition sent to 
capture Zollicoffer and to invade the South by way of Cumber¬ 
land Gap. 

Another design of the Federals was to invade southwestern 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


19T 


Virginia from eastern Kentucky, by way of Prestonsburg and 
Pound Gap, with the view of seizing upon the salt-works and 
lead-mines in this portion of Virginia, and of cutting off rail¬ 
road communication between Richmond and Memphis. To 
thwart this design, there was raised in the neighborhood of 
Prestonsburg a force little exceeding a thousand men, who 
were placed under the command of Col. Williams. To capture 
the “ rebels” at Prestonsburg, a considerable force was sent 
after them under the command of Gen. Kelson, of Kentucky. 
This somewhat notorious officer reported to the Lincoln gov¬ 
ernment that his expedition had been brilliantly successful; 
his command, according to his account, having fallen upon the 
“ rebels” at Piketon, captured upwards of a thousand of them, 
killed five hundred, or more, wounded a great number, and 
scattered the few remaining ones like chaff before the wind. 
This announcement caused intense joy in Cincinnati, and, in¬ 
deed, throughout the North; but the rejoicings were cut sud¬ 
denly short by the authentic account of the affair at Piketon, 
which occurred on the 8th of November, and in which the 
Confederates lost ten killed and fifteen wounded, while they 
ambushed a considerable body of Kelson’s men on the river 
cliff, near that place, and killed and wounded hundreds of 
them. Owing to the superior force of the Federals, however, 
Col. Williams’ little command fell back to Pound Gap. 

He had not more than 1,010 men, including sick, teamsters, 
and men, on extra duty. He described the little army that had 
held in check an apparently overwhelming force of the enemy, 
as an “ unorganized, half-armed, and barefooted squad.” He 
wrote to Richmond: “ We want good rifles, clothes, great¬ 
coats, knapsacks, haversacks, and canteens; indeed, every thing 
almost except a willingness to fight. Many of our men are 
barefooted, and I have seen the blood in their tracks as they 
marched.” 

There had long been unpleasant indications on the Tennessee 
border of disloyalty to the South. In what was called East 
Tennessee there was reported to be a strong “Union” party. 
This section was inhabited by an ignorant and uncouth pop¬ 
ulation squatted among the hills. The Union faction in East 
Tennessee was the product of the joint influences of three men, 
differing widely in tastes, habits of thought, and political 


198 THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAK. 

0 

opinion, but concurring in a blind and bigoted devotion to the 
old Federal government. These men were Andrew Johnson, 
William G. Brownlow, and T. A. B. Nelson. The first of 
these was a man'who recommended himself to the ignorant 
mountain people of Tennessee by the coarseness and vulgarity 
of his manners; but beneath his boorish aspect he had a strong 
native intellect, was an untiring political schemer, and for more 
than twenty years had exercised a commanding control over 
the rude mountaineers of Tennessee, who for an equal length 
of time had held the balance of power between the old Whig 
and Democratic parties in that State, voting first with one and 
then with the other political organization. Brownlow, “ the 
parson,” the haranguer of mobs in churches and at the hust¬ 
ings, and who, by his hatred of Andrew Johnson, had once 
made himself an ultra pro-slavery oracle of the Methodist 
Church, found Unionism so strong an element of popular par¬ 
tisan strength in East Tennessee, that he was forced to co¬ 
operate with his old enemy. The sincerest and most respecta¬ 
ble of the trio was Nelson, an accomplished orator, a poet and 
dreamer besides, having no likeness to the people among whom 
he resided but in his apparel, and passing most of his time in 
the secluded occupations of a scholar, in which vocation he was 
both profound and classical. There could be no stranger com¬ 
bination of talent and character than in these three men, who 
had been brought together by a single sympathy in opposition 
to the cause of the South. 

The Union party in Tennessee was for a long time occult; 
its very existence was for a considerable period a matter of 
dispute among Southern politicians; but it only awaited the 
operations of the enemy in Kentucky to assist and further their 
designs by a sudden insurrection among themselves. Their 
demonstrations were, however, premature. Early in November 
there was a conspiracy formed on the part of the Unionists 
for burning all the bridges on the East Tennessee and Virginia 
and Georgia and Tennessee railroads. The designs of the 
conspirators were consummated in part by the destruction of 
two or three bridges in East Tennessee, and of one in Georgia. 
The bridge across the Holston, at Strawberry Plains, on the 
East Tennessee and Virginia road, was saved by the heroic 
and self-sacrificing act of an humble individual, named Edward 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


199 


Keelan, at that time the sole guard at the place. He fought 
the bridge-burning party—more than a dozen in number— 
with such desperation and success, that they were forced to re¬ 
tire without accomplishing their object. One of the party was 
killed, and several badly wounded. Keelan was wounded in a 
number of places. Upon the arrival of friends, a few minutes 
after the occurrence, he exclaimed to them, “ They have killed 
me, but I have saved the bridge.” Luckily the wounds did not 
prove mortal, and the hero of Strawberry Plains still lives. 

The Federal expedition to Pound Gap was of the same char¬ 
acter with all the other invasions from the northwestern ter¬ 
ritory in this contest. The troops -were from Ohio and other 
northwestern States, the occupiers of the lands bountifully 
granted by Virginia to the Federal government, and by that 
government liberally distributed among the ancestors of the 
people attempting the invasion of Virginia and the South. 
This territory had been won by a Virginia army, composed ot 
volunteers from this State and from the district of Kentucky, 
then a part of the Old Dominion. The bold and successful 
enterprise of George Rogers Clark in the conquest of all that 
western territory, constitutes one of the most romantic and 
brilliant chapters of the history of the Revolution. 

We turn from the operations on the Kentucky and Virginia 
border, which were in effect abandoned by the enemy, to the 
more active theatre of the w T ar in Kentucky, in the neighbor¬ 
hood of the waters of the Ohio and Tennessee. It was to these 
waters that the enemy in fact transferred his plans of invasion 
of the South through Kentucky and Tennessee, by means of 
amphibious expeditions, composed of gunboats and land forces. 
Further on in the course of events we shall find the front of the 
war on the banks of the Tennessee instead of those of the Po¬ 
tomac, and we shall see that a war which the Southern people 
supposed lingered on the Potomac, was suddenly transferred, 
and opened with brilliant and imposing scenes on the Western 
waters. But it is not proper to anticipate with any comment 
the progress of events. 

Gen. Polk had been completing his works for the defence of 
Columbus. While thus engaged, he was assailed on the 7 th 
November by the enemy in strong force from Cairo. 


200 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. 

Before daybreak on the morning of the 7th of November, 
Gen. Polk was informed that the enemy, who were under the 
command of Gen. Grant, had made their appearance in the 
river with gunboats and transports, and were landing a con¬ 
siderable force on the Missouri shore, five or six miles above 
Belmont, a small village. Gen. Pillow, whose division was 
nearest the point immediately threatened, was ordered to cross 
the river and to move immediately with four of his regiments 
to the relief of Col. Tappan, who was encamped at Belmont. 

Our little army had barely got in position, wheil the skir¬ 
mishers were driven in, and the shock took place between the 
opposing forces. The enemy were numerous enough to have 
surrounded the little Confederate force with triple lines. Sev¬ 
eral attempts were made by the enemy’s infantry to flank the 
right and left wings of the Confederates; but the attempt on 
the right was defeated by the deadly fire and firm attitude of 
that wing, composed of the regiments of Colonels Eussell and 
Tappan, the 13th Arkansas and the 9th Tennessee, commanded 
by Col. Eussell, as brigade commander. The attempt to turn 
the left wing was defeated by the destructive fire of Beltz- 
hoover’s battery and Col. Wright’s regiment, aided by a line 
of felled timber extending obliquely from the left into the bot¬ 
tom. The two wings of the line stood firm and unbroken for 
several hours, but the centre, being in the open field, and 
greatly exposed, once or twice faltered. 

About this time, Col. Beltzhoover reported to Gen. Pillow 
that his ammunition was exhausted : Col. Bell had previously 
reported his regiment out of ammunition, and Col. Wright that 
one battalion of his regiment had exhausted its ammunition. 
The enemy’s force being unchecked, and now emerging into 
the edge of the field, Gen. Pillow ordered the line to use the 
bayonet. The charge was made by the whole line, and the 
enemy driven back into the woods. But his line was not 
broken, and he kept up a deadly fire, and being supported by 
his large reserve, the Confederate line was forced back to its 
original position, while that of the enemy advanced. The 
charge was repeated the second and third time, forcing the 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


201 


enemy’s line heavily against his reserve, but with like result. 
Finding it impossible longer to maintain his position without 
reinforcements and ammunition, Gen. Pillow ordered the whole 
line to fall back to the river-bank. In this movement his line 
was more or less broken and his corps mingled together, so 
that when they reached the river-bank they had the appear¬ 
ance of a mass of men rather than an organized corps. 

The field was to all appearances lost. Reinforcements, how¬ 
ever, had been sent for, and at the critical time when our 
forces were being driven to the river, a regiment, the 2d Ten¬ 
nessee, commanded by Col. Walker, which had crossed the 
river, came to their support. The opportunity was seized by 
Gen. Pillow to engage afresh, with this timely addition to his 
force, the advance of the enemy, while he made a rapid move¬ 
ment up the river-bank, with the design of crossing through 
the fallen timber, turning the enemy’s position and attacking 
him in the rear. 

As Gen. Pillow advanced the main body of his original 
force in broken order up the river, to a point where he could 
cross through the fallen timber to make the flank movement, 
he was joined by two other regiments ordered by Gen. Polk to 
his support. These fresh troops were placed under command 
of Col. Marks, of the 11th Louisiana. He was directed to 
lead the advance in double-quick time through the woods, and 
to the enemy’s rear, and to attack him with vigor. Col. Rus¬ 
sell, with his brigade, was ordered to support the movement. 

It was with great reluctance that Gen. Polk lessened the 
force assigned to the immediate defence of Columbus, as an at¬ 
tack in his rear was every moment apprehended. It was ob¬ 
vious, however, from the yielding of our columns to the heavy 
pressure of the masses of the enemy’s infantry, and the fierce 
assaults of their heavy battery, that further reinforcements 
were necessary to save the field. Gen. Cheatham was ordered 
to move across the river in advance of his brigade, to rally and 
take command of the portions of the regiments within sight on 
the shore, and to support the flank movement ordered through 
Col. Marks. 

About this time the enemy had fired our tents, and advan¬ 
cing his battery near the river-bank, opened a heavy fire on the 
steamers which were transporting our troops, in some instances 


202 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE W AR. 


driving shot through two of them at the same time. Captain 
Smith’s Mississippi battery was ordered to move to the river- 
bank, opposite the field of conflict, and to open upon the ene¬ 
my’s position. The joint fire of this battery and the heavy 
guns of the fort was for a few moments terrific. The enemy’s 
battery was silenced, and it could be seen that they were taking 
up their line of march for their boats. 

The Federals, however, had scarcely put themselves in mo¬ 
tion, when they encountered Col. Marks first, and afterwards 
Gen. Cheatham, on their flank. The conjuncture was decisive. 
The enemy finding himself between two fires, that of Smith’s 
artillery in front, and of Col. Marks’ and Russell s column 
in the rear, after a feeble resistance, broke and fled in disor¬ 
der. 

Satisfied that the attack on Columbus for some reason had 
failed, Gen. Polk had crossed the river, and ordered the victo¬ 
rious commands to press the enemy to their boats. The order 
was obeyed with alacrity. The pursuit was continued until 
our troops reached the point where the enemy had made his 
surgical head-quarters, and depository of stores, of ammunition, 
baggage, &c. Here our troops found a yard full of knapsacks, 
arms, ammunition, blankets, overcoats, mess-chests, horses, 
wagons, and dead and wounded men, with surgeons engaged 
in the duties of their profession. The enemy’s route of retreat 
was strewn likewise with many of these articles, and abun¬ 
dantly with blood, dead, and wounded men. “The sight along 
the line of the retreat,” s^ys an observer on the field, “ was 
awful. The dead and wounded were at every tree. Some 
crawled into the creeks to get water, and died there.” 

On coming in sight of the enemy’s gunboats and transports, 
our troops, as they arrived, were ordered to move ^is rapidly as 
possible through the cornfields to the bank of the river. The 
bank was thus lined for a considerable distance by our troops, 
who were ordered, as the boats passed up the river, to give the 
enemy their fire. The fire was hot and destructive. On the 
boats all was dismay. Under the fire from the bank, the Fed¬ 
erals rushed to the opposite side of the boats, and had to be 
forced back by the bayonet to prevent capsizing. Many ot 
the scldiers were driven overboard by the rush of those behind 
them They did not take time to unloose the cables, but cut 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


203 


all loose, and were compelled to run through the fire of sharp¬ 
shooters lining the bank for more than a mile. 

The day which at one time had been so inauspicious to our 
arms, closed upon a signal triumph. In his official report of 
the battle, Gen. Pillow declared, that no further evidences 
were needed to assure the fact, that “ the small Spartan army 7 ' 
which withstood the constant fire of three times their number 
for nearly four hours (a large portion of them being without 
ammunition), had acted with extraordinary gallantry, than the 
length and character of the conflict, the great inequality of 
numbers, and the complete results that crowned the day. 

That our loss should be severe in such a conflict might be 
expected. The list of our killed, wounded, and missing num¬ 
bered 632. The loss of the enemy was stated in the official 
reports of our generals to have been more than treble ours. 
Of this, we had the most abundant evidence in the incidents 
of the field, in his flight, and his helpless condition, when as¬ 
sailed in his crowded transports with the fire of thousands of 
deadly rifles. 

The victory of Belmont was esteemed as one of the most 
brilliant triumphs of the war.* In his congratulatory order, 
Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, who had been appointed to 

* The government at Washington, with a characteristic falsehood, stubborn 
to every other consideration but that of sustaining the spirits of its people, 
claimed the affair at Belmont as a victory to Northern arms. It is curious, 
and to some degree amusing, to notice the manner of this misrepresentation, 
and the gloze and insinuation by which it was effected in the Northern official 
reports of the battle. Gen. Grant, in his official report, declared that he had 
driven the Confederates to the river, burnt their camps, &c. So far, his report 
was ostentatiously fine, but not untrue. It has been shown, however, that 
the scale of battle was completely turned by a flank movement of our forces in 
heavy numbers, which routed the enemy, and converted his early successes of 
the morning into an ignominious defeat. In the Northern official reports of 
the battle, this portion of the day was dismissed with refreshing brevity and 
nonchalance. After describing in the most glowing terms his victory in 
pressing the Confederates to the river, Gen. Grant wrote to his friends, who - 
communicated the letter to the newspapers, “ on our return, stragglers that 
had been left in our rear fired into us, and more recrossed the river.” In his < 
official report, the flank movement of the Confederates, that was the event of 
the day and had decided it, was alluded to in a single sentence of casual men¬ 
tion, “The rebels recrossed the river, and followed in the rear to our place oj 
debarkation” Instances of this style and effrontery of falsehood abounded in 
all the Northern official reports of the events of the war; the above is fur¬ 
nished only as a characteristic specimen. 

14 



204 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


command in the Western Department, and had established his 
head-quarters at Bowling Green, declared: “This was no ordi¬ 
nary shock of arms; it was a long and trying contest, in which 
our troops fought by detachments, and always against superior 
numbers. The 7th of November will fill a bright page in our 
military annals, and be remembered with gratitude by the 
sons and daughters of the South.” 

Despite the victory of Belmont, our situation in Kentucky 
was one of extreme weakness and entirely at the mercy of the 
enemy, if he had not been imposed upon by false representa¬ 
tions of the number of our forces at Bowling Green. When 
Gen. Johnston was about to assume command of the Western 
Department, the government charged him with the duty of de¬ 
ciding the question of occupying Bowling Green, Kentucky, 
which involved not only military, but political considerations. 
At the time of his arrival at Nashville, the action of the Legis¬ 
lature of Kentucky had put an end to the latter consideration 
by sanctioning the formation of companies menacing Tennessee, 
by assuming the cause of the government at Washington, and 
by abandoning the neutrality it professed ; and, in consequence 
of their action, the occupation of Bowling Green became neces¬ 
sary as an act of self-defence, at least in the first step. 

About the middle of September, Gen. Buckner advanced 
with a small force of about four thousand men, which was in¬ 
creased by the 15th of October to twelve thousand, and though 
other accessions of force Avere received, it continued at about 
the same strength until xhe end of November, measles and 
other diseases keeping down the effective force. The enemy’s 
force then was reported to the War Department at fifty thou¬ 
sand, and an advance was impossible. 

Our own people were as much imposed upon as were the 
enemy, with respect to the real strength of Gen. Johnston’s 
forces, and while they were conjecturing the brilliant results oi 
an advance movement, the fact w T as that inevitable disasters 
might have been known by the government to have been in 
store for the Southern cause in Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
to be aw T aiting only the development of a crisis. The utter 
inadequacy of Gen. Johnston’s forces was known to the govern¬ 
ment. The authorities at Richmond appeared to hope for re¬ 
sults without the legitimate means for acquiring them; to look 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


205 


for relief from vague and undefined sources; and to await, with 
dull expectation, what was next to happen. While the govern¬ 
ment remained in this blank disposition, events marched on¬ 
ward. It is easily seen, as far as our narrative has gone, that 
our troops had shown a valor that was invincible against largely 
superior numbers of the enemy; that had given striking illus¬ 
trations of endurance in circumstances of'the greatest adversity 
and suffering; and that promised with absolute certainty, as far 
as its agency could go, the achievement of our independence. 
It is hereafter to be seen that this valor and devotion, great as 
they were, could yet not withstand an enemy superior in force, 
when his numbers were multiplied indefinitely against them; 
that they could not resist armaments to which, for want of 
defences, they could only offer up useless sacrifices of life; and 
that some other agency than the natural spirit and hardihood 
of men was necessary in the conduct of a war, in the nineteenth 
century, against a nation which had given such unquestionable 
proofs, as the North had, of quick and abundant resource, 
mental activity, and unflagging hope. 

It remains but to add here, mention of the political connec¬ 
tion which was scarcely more than nominally effected between 
Kentucky and the Confederate States. On the 18th November, 
the opponents of the Lincoln rule in Kentucky assembled in 
Convention, at Russellville, in the southern part of the State, 
for the purpose of organizing a provisional government for 
Kentucky, and for taking steps for her admission into the 
Southern Confederacy. On the 20tn November, the Conven¬ 
tion unanimously agreed upon a report, presenting in a strong 
light the falseness of the State and Federal Legislature, and 
concluded with the declaration that “ the people are hereby ab¬ 
solved from all allegiance to said government, and that they 
have the right to establish any government which to them may 
seem best adapted to the preservation of their lives and liberty.” 
George W. Johnson, of Scott county, was chosen governor. 
Commissioners were appointed to negotiate with the Confed¬ 
erate government for the earliest admission of Kentucky into 
the government of the Confederate States. The embassy of the 
commissioners to Richmond was successful, and before the 
middle of December, Kentucky was duly recognized as one of 
the States of the Southern Confederacy. 










206 

THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Prospects of European Interference.—The selfish Calculations of England.—Effects 
of the Blockade on the South.—Arrest by Capt. Wilkes of the Southern Commission¬ 
ers.—The Indignation of England.—Surrender of the Commissioners by the Lincoln 
Government.—Mr. Seward’s Letter. -Review of Affairs at the Close of the Year 
1861 .— Apathy and Improvidence of the Southern Government.—Superiority of the 
North on the Water.—The Hatteras Expedition—The Port Royal Expedition.—The 
Southern Privateers.-Their Failure.-Errors of Southern Statesmanship.- King 
Cotton.”—Episodes of the War.-The Affair of Santa Rosa Island.-The Affair of 
Dranesville.—Political Measures of the South.—A weak and halting Policy. The 
Spirit of the War in the North.—Administration of the Civil Polity of the Southern 
Army.—The Quarter-master’s Department.—The Hygiene of the Camps.—Ravages of 
the Southern Army by Disease.—The Devotion of the Women of the South. 


Since the commencement of the war, the South had enter¬ 
tained prospects of foreign interference, at least so far as to 
involve the recognition of her government by England and 
France, and the raising of the blockade. Such prospects, 
continued from month to month, had an unhappy effect^ in 
weakening the popular sentiment ot seli-reliance, in turning 
the attention of the people to the result of external events, and 
in amusing their attention with misty illusions. 

These prospects were vain. By the close of the year, the 
South had learned the lesson, that the most certain means of 
obtaining injury, scorn, and calumny from foreign people, was " 
to attempt their conciliation or to seek their applause, and that 
not until she had proved herself independent of the opinions of 
Europe, and reached a condition above and beyond the help 
of England and France, was she likely to obtain their amity 
and justice. 

It had been supposed in the South, that the interest of Eu¬ 
rope in the staples of cotton and tobacco would effect a raising 
of the blockade, at least by the fall of the year. The statistics 
on these subjects were thought to be conclusive. France 
derived an annual revenue of $38,000,000 from her monopoly 
of the tobacco trade; and Great Britain and her people, a 
revenue of $350,000,000 per annum from American cottou. 
Five millions of souls, in England, were interested in one way 



THE FIRST YEAR OF TIIE WAR. 


207 


or the other in the cotton manufacture ; and the South calcu¬ 
lated, with reason, that the blockade would be raised by foreign 
intervention, rather than that one-sixth of the population of 
the British Isles would be permitted to be thrown out of em¬ 
ployment by a decree or fulmination of the Yankee govern¬ 
ment at Washington. 

Among the statesmen of Great Britain, however, a different 
calculation prevailed, and that was, as long as the possible con¬ 
tingencies of the future held out the least hope of avoiding the 
alternative of war with the Washington government, to strain 
a point to escape it. It was argued, that it would be cheaper 
for England to support, at the public expense, five millions of 
operatives, than to incur the cost, besides the unpleasantness 
of an embroilment in American affairs; and it was in this 
spirit of selfish calculation—the results of which were stated 
by Lord Palmerston in the declaration, that the “ necessities” 
of England had not reached that point to require her to inter¬ 
fere, in any manner, in the American war—that it was ulti¬ 
mately decided by the British government to maintain her 
neutrality with reference to the blockade, as well as other in¬ 
cidents of the war. 

About the fall of the year, the South had begun to feel se¬ 
verely the effects of the blockade. Supplies of the usual goods, 
and even provisions, were becoming scarce. The evils were 
augmented every day in the results of a baneful spirit of specu¬ 
lation, which indulged in monstrous extortions and corrupted 
the public spirit, making opportunities for mercenary adventure 
out of the distresses and necessities of the country. There 
was great suffering among the poor, and especially among refu¬ 
gees, who had fled to the cities from districts occupied by the 
enemy. 

The resources of the South were such, however, that an} 
thing like famine or actual starvation, of any portion of the 
people, was not to be apprehended. The changes which hap¬ 
pened in the circumstances and pursuits of people, were not 
always as unfortunate as they appeared, and, in the end, not 
unfrequently proved an advantage to them and to the prosperity 
of the country. Many new enterprises were started ; many 
sources of profitable labor were sought out; and many in¬ 
stances of the diversion of popular industry were occasioned, 


208 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


which promised to become of permanent advantage in de¬ 
veloping the resources of the country in minerals and manufac¬ 
tures, and introducing provision crops on an enlarged scale in 
the Cotton States of the Confederacy. 

In the month of December occurred an event which promised 
the most fortunate consequences to the South, with respect to 
foreign intervention and her release from the blockade. The 
Confederate government had deputed Mr. James M. Mason, of 
Yirginia, and Mr. John Slidell, of Louisiana, commissioners, 
respectively, to England and France. They had escaped the 
blockade at Charleston on a Confederate vessel, and arriving 
at the neutral port of Havana, had left there on the 7th day of 
December in a British mail-steamer, the Trent, commanded by 
Capt. Moir. The next day after leaving port, the British ves¬ 
sel, while in the Bahama channel, was intercepted by the Fed¬ 
eral steam-frigate, San Jacinto, Commander Wilkes, being 
brought to by a shotted gun, and boarded by an armed boat’s 
crew. The persons of the commissioners and their secretaries, 
Messrs. Eustis and Macfarland, were demanded ; they claimed 
the protection of the British flag, and refused to leave it ex¬ 
cept at the instance of actual physical force, which Lieut. Fair¬ 
fax, who had boarded the vessel, then declared he was ready 
to use. The Trent was an unarmed steamer, and as resistance 
was hopeless, the commissioners were surrendered, under a 
distinct and passionate protest against a piratical seizure of 
ambassadors under a neutral flag. 

This outrage done by a Federal vessel to the British flag, 
when it was learned in the South, was welcome news, as it was 
thought certain that the British government would resent the 
insult, and as the boastful and exultant tone in the .North, over 
the capture of the commissioners, appeared to make it equally 
certain that the government at Washington would not surren¬ 
der its booty. War between England and the North was 
thought to be imminent. Providence was declared to be in 
our favor ; the incident of the Trent was looked upon almost 
as a special dispensation, and it was said, in fond imagination, 
that on its deck and in the trough of the weltering Atlantic 
the key of the blockade had at last been lost. 

These prospects were disappointed by the weakness of the 
government at Washington, in surrendering the commissioners 


TH,E FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


209 


and returning tlieni to the British flag. The surrender was an 
exhibition of meanness and cowardice unparalleled in the po¬ 
litical history of the civilized world, but strongly characteristic 
of the policy and mind of the North. The people of the North 
had, at first, gone into raptures over the arrest of the commis¬ 
sioners ; the newspapers designated it as “ worth more than a 
victory in the field the hospitalities of the city of New York 
were offered by its common council to Capt. Wilkes, and a din¬ 
ner was given him by leading citizens of Boston, in honor of 
his brave exploit in successfully capturing, from the deck of 
an unarmed mail-steamer, four unarmed passengers. The gov¬ 
ernment at Washington had given every indication of its ap¬ 
proval of the arrest. The compliments of the Cabinet had been 
tendered to Capt. Wilkes, and a proposition introduced into 
Congress to distinguish his piratical adventure by a public 
vote of thanks. The subjects of the capture were condemned 
to close cells in Fort Warren. 

Despite all this manifest indorsement by the government of 
the legality and value of the arrest of the commissioners, Mr. 
Seward did not hesitate to surrender them when the alterna¬ 
tive of war with Great Britain was indicated to him, in the 
dispatches of that government demanding, in very simple and 
stern terms, the reparation of the outrage that had been com¬ 
mitted upon its flag. 

In a letter to Mr. Adams, the representative of the Wash¬ 
ington government at London, Mr. Seward had advised him 
to make no explanations, as the Washington Cabinet thought 
it better that the ground taken by the British government 
should first be made known to them. The ground of its claims 
was never furnished by the British government. Its demand 
for reparation and apology was entirely naked, and evidently 
disdained to make a single argument on the law question. 
With unexampled shamelessness, Mr. Seward made the plea 
himself for the surrender of the commissioners ; he argued that 
they could not be the subjects of a judicial proceeding to de¬ 
termine their status, because the vessel, the proper subject of 
such a proceeding, had been permitted to escape; and with 
a contemptible affectation of alacrity to offer, from a returning 
sense of justice, what all the world knew had been extorted 
from the alarms of cowardice, he declared that he “ cheerfully” 


210 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


surrendered the commissioners, and did so in accordance with 
long-established American doctrine. 

In surrendering the commissioners, the "YV ashington govern 
ment took the opportunity to declare its reassured hopes of the 
Union, and to express its contempt for the Southern revolu¬ 
tion. In his letter to Earl Russell, Mr. Seward took particular 
pains to declare, that “ the safety of the Union did not require 
the detention of the captured persons;” that an u effectual 
check” had been put to the “ existing insurrection,” and that 
its “ waning proportions” made it no longer a subject of se¬ 
rious consideration. 

The declaration was false and affected, but it contained an 
element of truth. There is no doubt that, at the time it was 
made, the power of the revolution in the South was declining ; 
and a rapid survey of the political posture, and of events trans¬ 
piring in the latter half of the year 1861 , affords painful evi¬ 
dence of relaxation on the part of the Confederate government, 
and of instances of weakness and abuse that the people, who 
had pledged every thing and endured every thing in a contest 
for freedom, had no right to expect. 

REVIEW OF AFFAIRS AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1861 . 

The justice of history compels us to state that two causes— 
the overweening confidence of the South in the superior valor 
of its people, induced by the unfortunate victory of Manassas, 
and the vain delusion, continued from month to month, that 
European interference was certain, and that peace was near at 
hand, conspired, about this time, to reduce the Southern cause 
to a critical condition of apathy. 

Western Yirginia had been abandoned to the enemy almost 
with indifference, and with an apathetic confidence in an army 
that was in danger of becoming demoralized, and in the pros¬ 
pects of European interference, which were no brighter than 
formerly, except in imagination, the South carelessly observed 
the immense preparations of the North, by sea and land, to 
extend the area of the contest from the coasts of Carolina to 
the States on the Mississippi, and to embrace her whole terri¬ 
tory with the lengthening arms of the war. 

While the enemy was busy making his immense naval prep- 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


211 


arations against our sea-coast, and building scores of gun¬ 
boats on the upper Mississippi to drive our armies out ot 
Kentucky and Tennessee, the Southern government had shown 
the most extraordinary apathy; the spirit of our armies was 
evidently decaying, and abuses of extraordinary magnitude 
had crept into the civil administration of our affairs. No cor¬ 
responding activity was manifested by us in the line of naval 
enterprise adopted by the enemy. Means were not wanting for 
at least some emulation in this respect. Large appropriations 
had been made by Congress for the construction of gunboats 
and objects of river defence; the State of Virginia had turned 
over to the Confederate government the best navy-yard on the 
continent, and two armories with their machinery; and with 
the means and appliances at Gosport and Richmond, it is not 
doubted that, with proper activity, the government might have 
created a considerable fleet. 

The North had improved the advantage of its possession of 
a navy by increasing its numbers. Nearly a hundred vessels 
of different descriptions were purchased by it, and fleets of 
gunboats fitted out for operations on the coast and rivers. 
Two naval expeditions had already, before the close of the 
year, been sent down the Carolina coast, and without accom¬ 
plishing much, had given serious indications of what was to be 
expected from this arm of the service on the slight fortifica¬ 
tions of our ocean frontier. 

On the 29 th of August, a naval expedition from Fortress 
Monroe, under command of Commodore Stringham and Major- 
general Butler, had reduced the two forts at Hatteras Inlet, 
and had signalized their victory by the capture of fifteen guns 
and 615 prisoners, among whom was Commodore Barron, the 
Confederate officer in command. 

The capture of Port Royal, on the South Carolina coast, on 
the Tth of November, by the bombardment of Forts Walker 
and Beauregard, gave to the enemy a point for his squadrons 
to find shelter, and a convenient naval depot. The attack was 
made on the Tth of November, by a Federal fleet, numbering 
fifteen war-steamers and gunboats, under command of Capt. 
Dupont, flag-officer of the south Atlantic blockading squadron. 
The attack was easily successful by the bombardment of the 
forts at the entrance of the sound. It may be imagined how 


212 


3 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

inefficient our defences must have been, when the fact is, that 
they yielded after a bombardment which continued precisely 
four hours and thirty minutes; the condition of Fort Walker 
at this time being, according to the official report of General 
Drayton, who was in command, “ all but three of the guns in 
the water front disabled, and only five hundred pounds of pow¬ 
der in the magazine.” But these were only the first lessons of 
the enemy’s power and our improvidence in defences, that were 
to be taught us on the coast. 

The privateering service had yielded us but poor fruits. The 
Savannah, the first of the privateers, was captured, and her 
crew treated as pirates, at least so far as to load them with 
irons, and confine them in felons’ cells. With the exception of 
the Sumter (an awkwardly rigged bark) and one or two others, 
the privateers of the South were pretty closely confined within 
their own harbors and rivers by the blockading fleets. The 
u militia of the seas,” that, it was predicted in the early part 
of the war, would penetrate into every sea, and find splendid 
prizes in the silk ships of China, and the gold-freighted steam¬ 
ers of California, had proved but an inconsiderable annoyance 
to the extensive commercial marine of the North; it had 
captured during the year but fifty prizes in smacks, schooners, 
and small merchantmen, and by this time the South had learned 
that its privateering resources were about as delusive as that 
other early and crude expectation of adventitious aid in the 
war—the power of “ King Cotton.” 

It is curious, indeed, how the early expectations of the man¬ 
ner and conduct of a war are disappointed by the progress of 
its events, and its invariable law of success in the stern compe¬ 
titions of force, without reference to other circumstances. It 
was said, at the beginning of the war, that, while cotton would 
“ bring Europe to its knees,” the Southern privateers would 
cut up the commerce of the North, and soon bring the merce¬ 
nary and money-making spirits of that section to repentance. 
Neither result was realized. At the close of the year 1861, 
the South appeared to be fully convinced that it was waging a 
war in which it could no longer look for aid to external and 
adventitious circumstances; that it could no longer hope to 
obtain its independence from European interference, or from 
cotton, or from the annoyances of its privateers, or from the 




THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 213 

rupture of a financial system in the North; and that it had no 
other resource of hope but in the stern and bloody trials of the 
battle-field. 

Beyond the events briefly sketched in this and the foregoing 
chapters, there were some incidents which were interesting as 
episodes in the progress of the war, up to the close of the year 
1861, to which a full reference has been impossible in a work 
which professes to treat only the material parts of the import¬ 
ant campaigns of the year. 

The most interesting of these was probably the attack on 
Santa Rosa Island, in the harbor of Pensacola, on the night of 
the 8th October, and the storming, by picked companies from 
the Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida 
regiments, of the camp which had been made on the island by 
the notorious Billy Wilson Zouaves. Landing from steamers 
and flats on the enemy’s shore, within sight of his fleet, the 
small band of Confederates marched some three or four miles 
in the darkness of the night over an unknown and almost 
impassable ground, killing the enemy’s pickets, storming his 
intrenched camp, driving off the notorious regiment of New 
York bullies, with their colonel flying at their head, and burn¬ 
ing every vestige of'their clothing, equipage, and provisions. 
This action was rendered remarkable by an instance of dis¬ 
gusting brutality on the part of the enemy —$ie murder of our 
wounded who had been left on the field on account of the 
necessity of rapidly retiring with our small force, before the 
enemy could rally from his surprise. Of thirteen dead bodies 
reccfvered, eleven were shot through the head, having, at the 
same time, disabling wounds on the body. This fact admits of 
but one inference. 

The affair of Dranesville, on the line of the Potomac, had 
given a sharp and unexpected lesson to our immoderate confi¬ 
dence. This action occurred on the 22d day of December. 
Our whole force engaged was nearly 2,500 men, composed of 
Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Alabama troops, 
under command of Gen. Stuart. The expedition, which was 
attended by a train of wagons intended for foraging purposes, 
fell in with the enemy near Dranesville. On the appearance 
of the enemy, the 11th Virginia regiment charged them with a 
yell, and drove them back to their lines within sight of Dranes- 


214 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


ville. Here the enemy rallied. In the confusion which ensued, 
the 1st Kentucky regiment fired upon the South Carolina 
troops, mistaking them for the enemy. Discovering his mis¬ 
take, Colonel Taylor, of the 1st Kentucky, moved cautiously 
through the woods. Coming in sight of another regiment, 
and prompted to unusual caution by his previous mistake, he 
shouted to their commander to know who he was. “ The 
colonel of the 9th,” was the reply. “ Of what 9th ?” “ Don’t 

shoot,” said the Yankees; “we are friends—South Carolin¬ 
ians.” a On which side are you?” asked Col. Taylor. “For 
the Union,” now shouted the Federals; at the same instant 
pouring a murderous volley into the ranks of the Kentuckians. 
The engagement now became general. The Federals had the 
advantage of position and largely superior numbers. Their 
field batteries swept our lines, and several regiments of their 
infantry, protected by the ground, had advanced within one 
hundred yards of us, keeping the air full of minie-balls. 
After sustaining the fire for some time, our troops were com¬ 
pelled to fall back. The retreat was executed in good order, 
as the enemy did not attempt any pursuit. Our loss on the 
field from which we were repulsed was about two hundred in 
killed and wounded. The next day, reinforcements having 
reached Gen. Stuart, the enemy had drawn off from the 
locality of the battle-field, and declined any further engage¬ 
ment. 

The affair at Dranesville was no serious disaster, but it was 
a significant warning, and, in this respect, it had an import¬ 
ance beyond the size of the engagement and its immediate re¬ 
sults. The Yankees were learning to stand fire, and, out of 
the material which was raw at Bull Bun, McClellan was 
making troops who were no longer contemptible, and who were 
perceptibly improving in discipline, stanchness, and soldierly 
qualities. 

Of the political measures adopted by the South in further 
ance of the objects of the war, but a few words need be said. 
They are justly described as weak and halting responses to the 
really vigorous acts of the Northern government in its heart¬ 
less, but strong and effective prosecution of the war. While 
the Washington government protected itself against disaffected 
persons and spies by a system of military police, extending 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


21* 

over the whole North, the Provisional Congress, at Richmond, 
was satisfied to pass a law for the deportation of “ alien ene¬ 
mies,” the execution of which afforded facilities to the egress 
of innumerable spies. The Washington government had passed 
a law for the confiscation of the property of “ rebels.” The 
Congress at Richmond replied, after a weak hesitation, by a 
law sequestrating the property of alien enemies in the South, 
the operations of which could never have been intended to 
have effect; for, by future amendments in the same Congress, 
the law was soon emasculated into a broad farce. The Wash¬ 
ington government was actually collecting an army of half a 
million of men. The Richmond Congress reydied to the threat 
of numbers, by increasing its army, on paper, to four hundred 
thousand men ; and the Confederate government, in the midst 
of a revolution that threatened its existence, continued to rely 
on the wretched shift of twelve months’ volunteers and raw 
militia, with a population that, by the operation of conscrip¬ 
tion, could have been embodied and drilled into an invincible 
army, competent not only to oppose invasion at every point of 
our frontier, but to conquer peace in the dominions of the 
enemy. 

The universal mind and energy of the North had been con¬ 
solidated in its war upon the South. The patriotism of the 
nation was broadly invoked; no clique arrogated and' monopo¬ 
lized the control of affairs; no favorites closed up against the 
million outside the avenues of patronage, of honor, and of pro¬ 
motion. It was a remarkable circumstance that the North 
had, at all stages of the war, adopted the best means for secur¬ 
ing specific results. The popularity of Fremont, with the half 
million u Wide Awakes” of the North, was used to bring an 
army into the field. The great ship-broker of New York, 
Morgan, and the great ship-owner, Yanderbilt, were patronized 
to create a navy. In the army, the popularity of Banks, But¬ 
ler, Grant, and*Baker were employed equally with the science 
of McClellan, Buell, and Halleck.* It had been thus that the 

* The two most conspicuous Federal generals in the operations of the West 
were Generals Buell and Halleck. Don Carlos Buell was a native of Ohio. 
He had served in the Mexican war with distinction, having been twice bre- 
vetted for gallant conduct—the last time as major in the battle of Churubusco, 
in which he was severely wounded. At the close of the Mexican war, he was 




216 


TIIE FIE ST TEAE OF THE WAE. 


Federal government had united the whole [North, brought an 
army of half a million men into the field, and swelled the pro¬ 
portions of the war far beyond any expectations of the world. 

The policy of monotonous defence had been perseveringly 
pursued by the authorities of the Confederacy. On the side 
of the enemy, it had more than repaired the damage inflicted 
upon them in many brilliant battles, and had left them at 
perfect leisure, in the very presence of our forces, to devise, 
mature, and make trial of any plan of campaign or assault 
which they thought expedient. A large portion of Virginia 
and important regions on the Southern seaboards were now 
occupied by the enemy, who would never have ventured forth 
to such distances, if they had been menaced nearer home. The 
strictly defensive policy was sustained by elaborate arguments. 


appointed assistant adjutant-general, with rank of captain, but relinquished 
his rank in line in 1851. As a commander, he was courageous, energetic, and 
methodical, and he obtained the respect of the South for his chivalric dispo¬ 
sition, his courteous behavior to prisoners, and his uniform recognition of 
the laws and amenities of civilized warfare. 

Gen. Henry Wager Halleck, before the war, had been but little known, and 
that only as the author of some military works, and a prominent land lawyer, 
deeply versed in Mexican titles, at the bar of San Francisco, California. He 
was a pupil of West Point, and had been brevetted captain for meritorious 
services in California during the Mexican war. He was appointed Secretary 
of State of the province of California in the military government of Generals 
Kearney, Mason, and Riley, and was a member of the Convention to form and 
one of the committee to draft the State Constitution of California in 1849. 
He subsequently disappeared from public attention, and occupied himself 
with his innumerable Mexican clients in California as a lawyer and land 
speculator. 

A correspondent gives the following account of the personnel of General 
Halleck: “ In the field he is hardly the same person who might have been 
seen quietly gliding from the Planters’ House to head-quarters in St. Louis. 
He does not look a whit more military in appearance, but looks, in his new 
and rich, though plain uniform, as if he were in borrowed clothes. In truth, 
he bears a most striking resemblance to some oleaginous Methodist parson 
dressed in regimentals, with a wide, stiff-rimmed black felt hat sticking on 
the back of his head, at an acute angle with the ground. His demeanor in 
front of his tent is very simple and business-like. When on horseback, his 
Wesleyan character is more and more prominent. He neither looks like a 
soldier, rides like one, nor does he carry the state of a major-general in the 
field, but is the impersonation of the man of peace. His face is large, tabular, 
and Teutonic; his eyes a kind of indistinct gray, not without expression, but 
of that deep welling kind that only reveal the emotion without indicating its 
character.” 





THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


217 


It is not witliin the design of onr work to canvass the logical 
value of these arguments; but it is to recognize as a fact the 
natural and almost universal impression made upon the popular 
mind ot the South, that it could not he good generalship which 
left the enemy at perfect leisure to mature all his preparations 
for aggression; and that it could not be a glorious system of 
warfare, which never ventured an aggressive movement, and 
which decimated its armies by inaction. 

In the administration of the civil polity of the Southern 
army, as distinguished from its command, there were abuses 
and defects which were constant subjects of newspaper com¬ 
ment. 

In the Quarter-master’s department, however, the results ac¬ 
complished by the energy of its directors were little less than 
surprising, and received the marked commendation of a com¬ 
mittee of the Provisional Congress, appointed to inquire into 
the civil polity of the army. That the immense army now in 
the service of the Confederate States, suddenly collected, men 
and officers generally inexperienced in camp life and military 
duty, should be clothed, armed, and moved with the facility of 
a permanent organization, was not to be expected ; and yet, 
with but few exceptions, this result was accomplished. Major 
Alfred M. Barbour, of Virginia, was appointed Chief Quar¬ 
ter-master of the army of the Potomac, our principal corps 
tfarmee in the field ; and his remarkable resources of judgment, 
his vast energy, and his untiring devotion to his extensive du¬ 
ties in the field, contributed most important results in the emer¬ 
gencies of the many sudden and rapid movements of our forces 
in Virginia, in the remarkable campaign in that State of the 
spring of 1862. Such contributions to the public service are 
not to be depreciated by the side of more visible, and, in the 
popular mind, more brilliant achievements of the war. The 
labors of the Quarter-master’s department penetrate the entire 
military establishment, breathe life into the army, nurture its 
growth, and give it strength and efficiency in the field; vigi¬ 
lant, prepared, and present, it moves unnoticed amid the stir¬ 
ring events of the field, and obscured by the dust and smoke 
of the combat, it remains unobserved even while collecting the 
fruits of victory. > 

The most distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated 


218 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


hygiene of our camps. The ravages of disease among the 
army in Virginia were terrible ; the accounts of its extent were 
suppressed in the newspapers of the day, and there is no doubt 
that thousands of our brave troops disappeared from notice 
without a record of their end, in the nameless graves that yet 
mark the camping grounds on the lines of the Potomac, and 
among the wild mountains of Virginia. 

Our camps were scourged with fever, pneumonia, and diar¬ 
rhoea. The armies on the Potomac and in western Virginia 
suffered greatly—those troops in Cheat Mountain and in the 
vicinity of the Ivanawha Valley most intensely. The wet and 
changeable climate, the difficulty of transportation, exposure 
to cold and rain without tents, the necessary consequence of 
the frequent forward and retrograde movements, as well as the 
want of suitable food for either sick or well men, produced 
most of the sickness, and greatly aggravated it after its acces¬ 
sion. 

The regulations, requiring reports from the regiments as to 
the number of sick, their diseases, and the wants of the medi 
cal station, were, but in few instances, complied with. The 
result of this neglect was, that upon a change of position in 
the army, it was the unhappy consequence that the number of 
sick greatly exceeded that indicated by the reports. They 
were hurried to the rear, where the accommodations, both as 
to food, shelter, and medical attendance, being all insufficient, 
there was great suffering and great mortality. 

The suffering of our army evoked, on the part of the South¬ 
ern people, demonstrations of patriotic devotion and generosity, 
such, perhaps, as the world had never seen. The patriotism 
of our citizens at home was manifested in unremitting efforts 
to supply the wants and relieve the sufferings of the soldiers, 
sick and well. The supply of money, clothing, and hospital 
stores, from this voluntary and generous source, is estimated 
in millions of dollars.* It was the most cheering indication 


* The following contributions (estimated in money) were listed at the Pass¬ 
port Office, in Richmond, during the last three months of the year 1861. The 
list comprises almost exclusively tho donations made to the army of the Po¬ 
tomac. Of the voluntary supplies sent to the army in Missouri, Arkansas, 
and Kentucky, there is no account whatever ; but, as the same patriotic devo¬ 
tion animated our people everywhere, there is no reason to doubt that an equal 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 219 

of the spirit of our people in the cause of independence. The 
women of the country, with the tenderness and generosity of 
their sex, not only loaded railroad cars with all those applian- 
ces for the comfort of the sick which their patriotic ingenuity 
could devise, but also came to the rescue in clothing those who 
were well and bearing arms in the field. They made large pe¬ 
cuniary contributions, took charge of the hospitals established 
by the States, and, as matrons of those institutions, carried 
cleanliness and comfort to the gallant soldier, far from home 
and kindred. A committee of the Provisional Congress placed 
on record the thanks of the country to the women of the South, 
for their works of patriotism and public charity, and declared 
that the government owed them u a public acknowledgment 
of their faithfulness' in the glorious work of effecting our inde¬ 
pendence.” 


amount of clothing, stores, &c., had been sent to those troops. With this cal¬ 
culation, the whole amount of contributions for the last quarter of the year 
1861 could not have fallen short of three millions of dollars: 


North Carolina,.$325,417 

Alabama,. 317,600 

Mississippi,. 272,670 

Geor g ia >. 244,885 

South Carolina,. 137 206 

Texas >. 87,800 

Louisiana,. 61,950 

Virginia,. 48,070 

Tennessee,. qqq 

Florida, . 2,350 

Arkansas,. 95 Q 


$1,515,898 


15 
















220 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


I 


CHAPTER IX. 

Prospects of the Year 1862.—The Lines of the Potomac.—General Jackson’s Expe¬ 
dition to Winchester.—The Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky.— General Crit¬ 
tenden —Death of General Zollicoffer.—Sufferings of Crittenden’s- Army on the 
Retreat.—Comparative Unimportance of the Disaster.-The Battle of Roanoke 
Island.— Importance of the Island to the South.—Death of Captain Wise.—Causes of 
the Disaster to the South.—Investigation in Congress.—Censure of the Government.— 
Interviews of General Wise with Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of War.—Mr. Benjamin 
censured by Congress, but retained in the Cabinet.—His Promotion by President 
J)avis.—Condition of the Popular Sentiment. 

The year 1862 was to bring in a train of disasters to the 
.South. Taking a brief glance at the lines of the Potomac, we 
shall thereafter have to find the chief interest of the war in 
other directions—in the West and on the seacoast. 

In December last, Gen. Thomas F. Jackson was sent from 
Gen. Johnston’s line to Winchester with a force at his disposal 
of some ten thousand men. Had the same force been placed 
.at the command of Gen. Jackson in early autumn, with the 
view to an expedition to Wheeling, by way of the Winchester 
.and Parkersburg road, the good etfects would, in all proba¬ 
bility, have shown themselves in the expulsion of the Federals 
from northwestern Virginia. 

On the 1st of January, 1862, Gen. Jackson marched with 
his command from Winchester to Bath, in Morgan county, 
; and from the latter place to Komney, where there had been a 
large Federal force for many weeks, and from which point 
they had committed extensive depredations on the surrounding 
-country. Gen. Jackson drove the enemy from Bomney and 
the neighboring country without much fighting. His troops, 
however, endured the severest hardships in the expedition. 
Their sufferings were terrible in what was the severest portion 
of the winter. They were compelled at one time to struggle 
through an almost blinding storm of snow and sleet, and to 
bivouac at night in the forests, without tents or camp equi¬ 
page. Many of the troops were frozen on the march, and died 
from exposure and exhaustion. 


TIIE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


The heroic commander, whose courage had been so bril¬ 
liantly illustrated at Manassas, gave new proofs of his iron 
will in this expedition and the subsequent events of his cam¬ 
paign in the upper portion of the valley of Virginia, hfo one 
would have supposed that a man, who, at the opening of the 
war, had been a professor in a State military institute—that 
at Lexington, Virginia—could have shown such active deter¬ 
mination and grim energy in the field. But Gen. Jackson had 
been brought up in a severer school of practical experience 
than "Vest Point, where he had graduated twenty years before; 
he had served in the memorable campaign from Vera Cruz to 
Mexico ; and an iron will and stern courage, which he had 
from nature, made him peculiarly fitted to command.*’ But 
we must wait for a subsequent period to refer again to Gen. 
Jackson’s operations in the Valley, or to other portions of the 
campaign in Virginia. 


* At the siege of Vera Cruz, Jackson commanded a "battery, and attracted 
attention by the coolness and judgment with which he worked his guns, and 
was promoted first lieutenant. For his conduct at Cerro Gordo,, he was brevet- 
ted captain. He was in all Scott’s battles to the city of Mexico, and behaved 
so well that he was brevetted major for bis services. To his merits as a.com¬ 
mander ho added the virtues of an active, humble, consistent Christian, 
restraining profanity in his camp, welcoming army colporteurs, distributing 
tracts, and anxious to have every regiment in his army supplied with a chap¬ 
lain. lie was vulgarly sneered at as a fatalist; his habits of soliloquy were 
derided as superstitious conversations with a familiar spirit; but the confi¬ 
dence he had in his destiny was the unfailing mark of genius, and adorned the 
Christian faith, which made him believe that he had a distinct mission of duty 
in which he should be spared for the ends of Providence. Of the habits of his 
life the following description is given by one who knew him: “ He is as calm 
in the midst of a hurricane of bullets as he was in the pew of his church at 
Lexington, when he was professor of the Institute. He appears to be a man 
of almost superhuman endurance. Neither heat nor cold makes the slightest 
impression upon him. He cares nothing for good quarters and dainty fare. 
Wrapped in his blanket, he throws himself down on the ground anywhere, 
and sleeps as soundly as though he were in a palace. He lives as the soldiers 
live, and endures all the fatigue and all the suffering that they endure. His 
vigilance is something marvellous. He never seems to sleep, and lets nothing 
pass without his personal scrutiny. He can neither be caught napping, ncr 
whipped when he is wide awake. The rapidity of his marches is something 
portentous. He is heard of by the enemy at one point, and, before they can 
make up their minds to follow him, he is off at another. His men have little 
baggage, and he moves, as nearly as he can, without incumbrance. He keeps 
so constantly in motion, that he never has a sick list, and no need of hospitals.” 



222 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


THE BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS IN KENTUCKY. 

In a previous chapter, we noticed the expedition of Gen, 
Zollicoffer in Kentucky, and gave an account of the rout of the 
forces sent against him. The next expedition of the enemy 
against him was successful beyond their expectations. 

Since the atfair referred to, Gen. Zollicoffer had moved with 
a portion of his command to Mill Springs, on the southern 
bank of the Cumberland river, and soon after advanced across 
to Camp Beech Grove, on the opposite bank, fortifying this 
camp with earthworks. At Beech Grove, he placed five regi¬ 
ments of infantry, twelve pieces of artillery, and several hun¬ 
dred *cavalry, and at Mill Springs he had two regiments of 
infantry and several hundred cavalry. About the first of 
January, Major-general Crittenden arrived and took the com¬ 
mand, having been advanced, by President Davis, from a 
captaincy in the Federal army to a major-generalship in the 
Confederate army. 

Our position at Beech Grove had but few advantages. From 
the face of the country in front there was a very bad range for 
artillery, and it could not be of very material benefit against 
an attacking infantry force; and, considering the extent of the 
front line and the number of works to be defended, there was 
within the camp an insufficient force. At the same time, for 
several weeks, bare existence in the camps was very precarious, 
from want of provisions and forage. Regiments frequently 
subsisted on one-third rations, and this very frequently ot 
bread alone. Wayne county, which was alone productive in 
this region of Kentucky, had been exhausted, and the neigh¬ 
boring counties of Tennessee could furnish nothing for the 
support of the army. Only corn could be obtained for the 
horses and mules, and this in such small quantities that often 
cavalry companies were sent out on unshod horses which had 
eaten nothing for two days. The condition of the roads and the 
poverty of the intervening section rendered it impossible to 
transport from Knoxville, a distance of one hundred and thirty 
miles. The enemy from Columbia commanded the Cumberland 
river, and only one boat was enabled to come up with supplies 
from Nashville. With the channel of communication closed, 
the position became untenable without attack. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


223 


In these straits, when the entire army at Mill Springs had 
been reduced to a single ration of beef per day, and a half ra¬ 
tion of corn, the latter eaten as parched corn, and not issued 
as meal, news reached Gen. Crittenden of an advance move¬ 
ment of the enemy, both from Columbia and from Somerset. 
On the 17th of January it was ascertained that a large Fed¬ 
eral force, under Gen. Thomas, was moving on the road from 
Columbia, and, on the evening of that day, was camped about 
ten miles from Beech Grove. It was also ascertained that 
other reinforcements were moving from the direction of Colum¬ 
bia, under command of Gen. Schoepff, and that the junction of 
these two forces was intended for an attack on Camp Beech 
Grove. 

Under these circumstances, Gen. Crittenden determined to 
attack Gen. Thomas’s force in his camp. The decision, which 
was sanctioned by a council of war, was a most adventurous 
one. It was proposed, with an effective force of four thousand 
men, to attack an enemy in his intrenchments, at least ten 
thousand strong; it is true, however, that a defence of our in¬ 
trenchments was impracticable, and that to have awaited the 
enemy there, would only have given him time to have effected a 
junction of his forces. This consideration, however, gives but 
an imperfect vindication of the impetuous adventure determined 
upon by Gen. Crittenden. The fact was, that the avenues of 
retreat were open to our little army, and could only have been 
cut off by the enemy’s crossing above and below Mill Springs. 

In perfect silence, at midnight, the march began. The bri¬ 
gade of Gen. Zollieoffer moved in front. In the gray dawn, 
about six o’clock, two miles from their camp, the pickets of the 
enemy fired upon our advanced cavalry. The morning of the 
19th was dark and rainy—a fit day for a sabbath battle. The 
loth Mississippi regiment, in line of battle, was steadily ad¬ 
vanced, under the constant fire of the enerfiy. The charge of 
Gen. Zollicoffer’s brigade, in which this gallant regiment earned 
the most conspicuous distinction of the day, soon became im¬ 
petuous. The Mississippi troops fought with a devotion never 
excelled by the soldiers of any battle-field ; nearly half of the 
regiment (it numbered only 440) fell in the action; at times 
they fought with the enemy at ten or twelve paces, and, in one 
of their sweeping and exultant charges, for fifty yards, dashed 


224 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


over the dead bodies of Yankees. The enemy was steadily 
driven back before the charge of Gen. Zollicoffer’s command. 
Already he was ascending the last hill to its crest, where 
the heaviest firing told the battle raged. He sent for rein¬ 
forcements, and the brigade of Gen. Carrol was ordered up. 
In another moment, it was announced that Gen. Zollicoffer was 
killed. He had fallen on the crest of the hill, the stronghold 
of the enemy, which he had almost driven them from, and 
which once gained, the day was ours. 

Gen. Zollicoffer fell very near the camp of the enemy. He 
was with Col. Battle’s Tennessee regiment, this and the Missis¬ 
sippi regiment being the chief participants in the action, and 
in the ranks of which were his own home friends, born and 
•brought up around him at Nashville. In front, and concealed 
in the woods, was a regiment of Kentucky renegades, com 
manded by Col. Fry. By some mistake, probably that of the 
Kentuckians for a regiment of his ow T n command, Gen. Zolli 
coffer got very near them. Col. Fry was at the right of his 
regiment. Gen. Zollicoffer was within a few feet of the colonel. 
A gum coat concealed his uniform. The two parties mistook 
each other for friends, and discovered their mutual mistake 
almost at the same instant. One of General Zollicoffer’s aids 
shot at Colonel Fry, but only wounded his horse. The next 
moment the Federal colonel fired at Zollicoffer, and the gen¬ 
eral, raising his hand to his breast, fell, pierced by several balls. 

At the announcement of the death of Gen. Zollicoffer, a 
sudden gloom pervaded the field and depressed the Tennessee 
troops, who had been devotedly attached to him. Gen. Crit¬ 
tenden essayed all that personal example could do to retrieve 
the sinking fortunes of the day. He, in person, rode up to the 
front of the fight, in the very midst of the fire of the enemy. 
To gain the disputed hill, the fight was still continued. Charge 
after charge was driven back by the heavy forces of the enemy. 
After a conflict of three and a half hours, our troops com¬ 
menced to give way. The pursuit was checked by several 
stands made by the little army, and the intrenchments at Camp 
Beech Grove were reached in the afternoon, with a loss on our 
side of about three hundred killed and wounded, and probably 
fifty prisoners. 

The advance of the enemy arrived late in the evening before 


THE FlEoi' YEAR OF THE WAR. 


225 


the Confederate intrenchments, and fired upon them with shot 
and shell. Night closing in, put a stop to further demonstra¬ 
tions. Our men, tired and worn out as they were, stood be¬ 
hind the breastworks until midnight, when orders came for them 
to retreat quietly across the river. A steamer, with three 
barges attached, commenced the work of transportation. Can¬ 
non, baggage wagons, and horses were abandoned ; every thing 
was lost save what our men had on their backs, and yet the 
whole night was consumed in getting the army over the river, 
which was very high at the time. The line of retreat was taken 
up towards Monticello, Gen. Crittenden having determined to 
strike for the Cumberland at the highest point where boats 
could land with safety, in Order to he in open communication 
with Nashville. 

The retreat was one of great distress. Many of the troops 
had become demoralized, and, without order, dispersed through 
the mountain by-ways in the direction of Monticello. “We 
reached Monticello,” writes an officer of one of the regiments 
in the retreat, “ at night, and then we were threatened with 
starvation—an enemy far more formidable than the one we left 
beyond the river. Since Saturday night, we had but an hour 
of sleep, and scarcely a morsel of food. For a whole week, we 
have been marching under a bare subsistence, and I have at 
length approached that point in a soldier’s career when a hand 
ful of parched corn may be considered a first-class dinner. We 
marched the first few days through a barren region, where sup¬ 
plies could not be obtained. I have more than once seen the 
men kill a porker with their guns, cut and quarter it, and broil 
it on the coals, and then eat it without bread or salt. The 
suffering of the men from the want ol the necessanes of life, 
of clothing, and of repose, has been most intense, and a more 
melancholy spectacle than this solemn, hungry, and weary 
procession, could scarcely be imagined.” 

The enemy invested the abandoned camp of the Confederates 
on the morning following the day of the battle. Gen. Schoepfi’s 
brigade had crossed the river preparatory to the attack which 
Gen. Thomas had intended to make on the intrenchments on 
Monday. Early in the morning, the steamer used by the Con¬ 
federates in effecting their retreat was discovered lying in the 
river, and was burnt by the shells of the enemy. They con- 


226 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


gratulated themselves that they had cut off the last hope of 
the escape of “ the rebels.” Long columns of troops tiled away, 
and the artillery commenced to play on the intrenchments, in 
doubt for a moment whether their guns were replied to or not, 
when word came that the intrenchments were abandoned. As 
the enemy marched into the camp there was hardly a cheer. 
They had hoped to capture every man of the Confederates, and 
were bitterly disappointed. They secured, however, a rich 
spoil of victory—every thing in fact that made our poor soldiers 
an army. The property captured was of considerable value. 
It consisted of eight six-pounders and two Parrott-guns, with 
caissons filled with ammunition, about 100 four-horse wagons, 
and upwards of 1,200 horses and mules, several boxes of arms 
which had never been opened, and from 500 to 1,000 muskets. 

The death of Gen. Zollicoffer was deeply lamented by his 
countrymen. It is doubtful whether the death of any man of 
the present generation ever produced such conspicuous grief 
among Tennesseeans. He was a man made of stern stuff, and 
possessed in a remarkable degree the confidence of his army 
and of the Tennessee people. He was devoted to the interests 
of the South, and, during a long career in Congress, was one 
of the few members of the Whig party who voted uniformly 
with Southern men on all questions involving her honor and 
welfare. Made a brigadier-general, he was assigned to the de¬ 
partment of East Tennessee at an early period of the war, and 
had exhibited rare address and genuine courage and military tal¬ 
ents in the administration of his responsible command. It was a 
melancholy mode which his army chose of testifying their ap¬ 
preciation of his ability as a commander, in giving up all for 
lost when he was shot down ; but it certainly afforded a marked 
testimony of their confidence in his generalship. 

The body of General Zollicoffer fell into the hands of the en 
emy. His remains were treated by them with unusual respect. 
One of their officers, who had known him in Washington 
asked to be permitted to see the corpse. A pistol-shot had 
struck him in the breast, a little above the heart. His face 
bore no expression such as is usually found upon those whe 
fall in battle—no malice, no reckless hate, not even a shadow 
of physical pain. It was calm, placid, noble. “ Poor fellow,’ 
wrote the officer who visited with respect his remains just after 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


227 


the battle, £< I hav^never looked on a countenance so marked 
with sadness. A deep dejection had settled on it. ‘ The low 
cares ot the mouth’ were distinct in the droop at its corners, 
and the thin cheeks showed the wasting which comes through 
disappointment and trouble.” 

The reverse sustained by our arms in Southern Kentucky 
involved no important military consequences; and the govern¬ 
ment at Richmond found cause of congratulation in the cir¬ 
cumstance that, it a defeat must needs have happened to it at 
this time, it could not have come upon it at a point of less com¬ 
parative consequence than the battle-ground near Somerset, 
Kentucky. It was a hundred miles from the line of railroad 
connecting us with the great West; it was a still greater dis¬ 
tance from Cumberland Gap, the nearest point of the Virginia 
line ; and there intervened, on the road to Knoxville, rivers and 
mountain passes which an invading army could only traverse 
slowly and with great caution. 

But a disaster to our arms was shortly to ensue, of the im¬ 
portance and gravity of which there could be no doubt, and 
with respect to which the government could find neither con¬ 
solations nor excuses. While we have seen how matters stood 
on the Potomac in the opening of the year 1862, and what 
ominous indications had taken place in the West, we must now 
remove the attention of the reader to the sea-coast, where, 
along the low and melancholy scenery of the sea-border of 
North Carolina, one of the most extraordinary dramas of the 
war was to be enacted. 

THE BATTLE OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 

On the 21st of December, that part of North Carolina east 
of the Chowan river, together with the counties of Washington 
and Tyrrell, was, at the request of the proper authorities of 
North Carolina, separated from the remainder, and constituted 
into a military district, under Brigadier-general H. A. Wise, 
and attached to the command of Major-general Huger, com¬ 
manding the department of Norfolk. 

Immediately upon the secession of the State of North Caro¬ 
lina from the government of the United States, and the adop¬ 
tion of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, 


228 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


the authorities of that State commenced ^he construction of 
fortifications at Hatteras and Oregon Inlets, and other points 
upon her coast, which were not completed when the State 
transferred her forts, arsenals, army, navy, and coast defences 
to the Confederate government. Shortly thereafter the attack 
w T as made upon Forts Hatteras and Clark, and they were 
taken, and the fortifications at Oregon Inlet were abandoned, 
and the armament, stores, and ammunition were removed to 
Koanoke Island. The enemy immediately appeared in force 
in Pamlico Sound, the waters of which are connected with Al¬ 
bemarle and Currituck sounds by means of the two smaller 
sounds of Croatan and Koanoke. The island of Koanoke be¬ 
ing situated between these two latter sounds, commanding the 
channels of each, became, upon the fall of Hatteras and the 
abandonment of Oregon Inlet, only second, in importance to 
Fortress Monroe. The island then became the key which un¬ 
locked all northeastern North Carolina to the enemy, and ex¬ 
posed Portsmouth and Norfolk to a rear approach of the most 
imminent danger. 

Such was the importance of Koanoke Island. It was threat¬ 
ened by one of the most formidable naval armaments yet fitted 
out by the North, put under the command of Gen. Burnside, 
of Khode Island. It might have been placed in a state of de¬ 
fence against any reasonable force, with the expenditure ot 
money and labor supposed to be within the means of the gov¬ 
ernment. Ample time and the fullest forewarnings were given 
to the government for the construction of defences, since, for a 
full month, Gen. Wise had represented to the government, 
with the most obvious and emphatic demonstrations, that the 
defences of the island were wholly inadequate for its protection 
from an attack either by land or water. 

The military defences of Koanoke Island and its adjacent 
waters on the 8th of February, the day of its surrender, con¬ 
sisted of three sand forts, a battery of two 32-pounders, and a 
redoubt thrown across the road in the centre of the island, about 
seventy or eighty feet long, on the right of which was a swamp, 
on the left a marsh. In addition to these defences on the 
shore and on the island, there was a barrier of piles, extending 
from the east side of Fulker Shoals, towards the island. ' Its 
object was to compel vessels passing on the west of the island 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


229 


to approach within reach of the shore batteries; but up to the 
8th of February, there was a span of 1,700 yards open opposite 
to Fort Bartow, the most southern of the defences, on the west 
side of the island. 

The entire military force stationed upon the island prior to, 
and at the time of, the late engagement, consisted of the 8tli 
regiment of North Carolina State troops, under the command 
of Col. II. M. Shaw ; the 31st regiment of North Carolina 
volunteers, under the command of Col. J. Y. Jordan ; and three 
companies of the 17th North Carolina troops, under the com¬ 
mand of Major G. H. Hill. After manning the several forts, 
on the 7th of February, there were but one thousand and 
twenty-four men left, and two hundred of them wefre upon the 
sick list. On the evening of the 7th of February, Brig.-gen. 
Wise sent from Nagg’s Head, under the command of Lieut.- 
col. Anderson, a reinforcement, numbering some four hundred 
and fifty men. The whole force was under the command of 
Brig.-gen. Wise, who, upon the 7th and 8th of February, was 
at Nagg’s Head, four miles distant from the island, confined 
to a sick-bed, and entirely disabled from participating in the 
action in person. The immediate command, therefore, devolved 
upon Col. H. M. Shaw, the senior officer present. 

On the morning of the 7th of February, the enemy’s fleet 
proceeded steadily towards Fort Bartow. In the sound be¬ 
tween Roanoke Island and the mainland, upon the Tyrrell 
side, Commodore Lynch, with his squadron of seven vessels, 
had taken position, and at eleven o’clock the enemy’s fleet, 
consisting ot about thirty gunboats and schooners, advanced 
in ten divisions, the rear one having the schooners and trans¬ 
ports in tow. The advance and attacking division again sub¬ 
divided, one assailing the squadron and the other firing upon 
the fort with nine-inch, ten-inch, and eleven-inch shell, spheri¬ 
cal case, a few round-shot, and every variety of rifled projec¬ 
tiles. The fort replied with but four guns (which were all 
that could be brought to bear), and after striking the foremost 
vessels several times, the fleet fell back, so as to mask one of 
the guns of the fort, leaving but three to reply to the fire of 
the whole fleet. The bombardment was continued throughout 
the day, and the enemy retired at dark. The squadron, under 
the command of Commodore Lynch, sustained their position 


230 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


most gallantly, and only retired after exhausting all their am¬ 
munition, and having lost the steamer Curlew and the Forest 
disabled. 

In the mean time, the enemy had found a point of landing 
out of the reach of our field-pieces, and defended by a swamp 
from the advance of our infantry. The enemy having effected 
a landing here, our whole force took position at the redoubt or 
breastwork, and placed in battery their field-pieces with neces¬ 
sary artillerymen, under the respective commands of Captain 
Schemerhorn, and Lieutenants Kinney and Seldom Two com¬ 
panies of the Eighth and two of the Thirty-first were placed at 
the redoubt to support the artillery. Three companies of the 
Wise Legion, deployed to the right and left as skirmishers. 
The remainder of the infantry were in position, three hundred 
yards in the rear of the redoubt, as a reserve. 

The enemy landed some fifteen thousand men, with artillery, 
and, at 7 o’clock, a. m., of the 8th, opened fire upon the redoubt, 
which was replied to immediately with great spirit, and the 
action soon became general, and was continued without inter¬ 
mission for more than five hours, when the enemy succeeded 
in deploying a large force on either side of our line, flanking 
each wing. The order was then given by Col. Shaw to spike 
the guns in the battery, and to retreat to the northern end of 
the island. The guns were spiked, and the whole force fell 
back to the camps. 

During the engagement at the redoubt, the enemy’s fleet at¬ 
tempted to advance to Croatan Sound, which brought on a 
desultory engagement between Fort Bartow and the fleet, 
which continued up to half-after 12 o’clock, when the com¬ 
manding officer was informed that the land defences had been 
forced, and the position of the fort turned; he thereupon order¬ 
ed the guns to be disabled and the ammunition destroyed, 
which was done, and the fort abandoned. The same thing was 
done at the other forts, and the forces from all the forts were 
marched in good order to the camp. The enemy took posses¬ 
sion of the redoubts and forts immediately, and proceeded in 
pursuit, with great caution, towards the northern end of the 
island in force, deploying so as to surround our forces at the 
camp. 

Col. Shaw had arrived with his whole force at his camp in 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


231 


time to have saved liis whole command, if transports had been 
furnished. But there were none. His situation was one of 
extreme exigency. He found himself surrounded by a greatly 
superior force upon the open inland ; he had no field-works to 
protect him; he had lost his only three field-pieces at the re¬ 
doubt ; and he had either to make an idle display of courage 
in fighting the foe at such immense disadvantage, which would 
have involved the sacrifice of his command, or to capitulate 
and surrender as prisoners of war. He determined upon the 
latter alternative. 

The loss on our side was, killed, 23; wounded, 58; missing, 
62. Our mortality list, however, was no indication of the 
spirit and vigor of our little army, as in its position it had but 
little opportunity of contest without a useless sacrifice of human 
life on their side. Among the killed was Captain O. Jennings 
Wise, of the Richmond Blues, son of General Wise, a young 
man of brilliant promise, refined chivalry, and a courage to 
which the softness of his manners and modesty of his behavior 
added the virtue of knightly heroism. His body, pierced by 
wounds, fell into the hands of the enemy, in whose camp, at¬ 
tended by every mark of respect, he expired. The disaster at 
Roanoke Island was a sharp mortification to the public. But 
for the unfortunate general, who was compelled to hear on a 
sick-bed—perhaps to witness from the windows of a sick-cham¬ 
ber—the destruction of his army and the death of his son, there 
was not a word of blame. 

In a message to Congress, President Davis referred to the 
result of the battle at Roanoke Island as “ deeply humiliating 
a committee of Congress, appointed to investigate the affair, 
resented the attempt to attribute a disaster, for which the gov¬ 
ernment itself was notoriously responsible, to want of spirit in 
our troops; declared that, on the contrary, the battle of Roanoke 
Island was “ one of the most gallant and brilliant actions of the 
warand concluded that whatever of blame and responsibility 
was justly attributable to any one for the defeat, should attach 
to Gen. Huger, in whose military department the island was, 
and to the Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, whose posi¬ 
tive refusal tQ put the island in a state of defence secured its 
fall. There was, in fact, but little room for the government to 
throw reflection upon the conduct of the troops. In the lan- 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


232 

guage of their commanding general, “ both officers and men 
fought firmly, coolly, efficiently, and as long as humanity would 
allow.” 

The connection of the War Pepartment with the Roanoke 
Island affair, which was with difficulty dragged to light in 
Congress, is decidedly one of the most curious portions of the 
history of the war. Gen. Wise had pressed upon the govern¬ 
ment the importance of Roanoke Island* for the defence of 
Norfolk. He assumed the command of the post upon the 7th 
of January. In making a reconnoissance of the island and its 
defences, on the 13th January, he addressed Secretary Benja¬ 
min, and declared that the island, which was the key of all the 
rear defences of Norfolk, and its canals and railroads, was 
“ utterly defenceless.” On the 15th of January, Gen. Wise 
addressed the secretary again. He wrote that twenty-four 
vessels of the enemy’s fleet were already inside of Hatteras 
Inlet, and within thirty miles of Roanoke Island; that all there 
was to oppose him was five small gunboats, and four small 
land batteries, wholly inefficient; that our batteries were not 
casemated ; and that the force at Hatteras, independent of the 
Burnside expedition, was “ amply sufficient to capture or pass 
Roanoke Island in any twelve hours.” 

These written appeals for aid in the defences of the island 
were neglected and treated with indifference. Determined to 
leave nothing wanting in energy of address, Gen. Wise repaired 
in person to Richmond, and called upon the Secretary of War, 
and urged, in the most importunate manner, the absolute 


* It (Roanoke Island) was tlie key to all tlie rear defences of Norfolk. It 
unlocked two sounds, Albemarle and Currituck; eight rivers, tlie North, 
West, Pasquotank, the Perquimmons, the Little, the Chowan, the Roanoke, 
and the Alligator; four canals, the Albemarle and Chesapeake, the Dismal 
Swamp, the Northwest Canal, and the Suffolk ; two railroads, the Petersburg 
and Norfolk, and the Seaboard and Roanoke. It guarded more than four-fifths 
of all Norfolk’s supplies of corn, pork, and forage, and it cut the command 
of General Huger off from all its most efficient transportation. It endangers 
the subsistence of his whole army, threatens the navy-yard at Gosport, and 
to cut off Norfolk from Richmond, and both from railroad communication 
with the South. It lodges the enemy in a safe harbor from the storms of 
Hatteras, gives them a rendezvous, and large rich range of supplies, and the 
command of the seaboard from Oregon Inlet to Cape Henry.* It should have 
been defended at the expense of twenty thousand men, and of many millions 
of dollars .”—Report of Gen. Wise. 



THE FrRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


233 


necessity of strengthening the defences upon that island with 
additional men, armament, and ammunition. Mr. Benjamin 
replied verbally to liis appeals for reinforcements, that he had 
not the men to spare for his command. Gen. Wise urged upon 
the secretary that Gen. Huger had about 15,000 men in front 
of Norfolk, lying idle in camp for eight months, and that a 
considerable portion of them could be spared for the defence of 
the rear of Norfolk, and especially as his (Gen. Wise’s) district 
supplied Norfolk and his army with nearly or quite all of his 
corn, pork, and forage. 

The reply to all these striking and urgent appeals was a per¬ 
emptory military order from Secretary Benjamin, dated the 
22d of January, requiring Gen. Wise to proceed immediately 
to Roanoke Island. With ready military pride the unfortunate 
general received the orders, without a murmur in public; it 
being known only to his most intimate friends the circum¬ 
stances under which he left Richmond on the stern and un- 
propitious mission which promised nothing to himself but 
disaster, the mistaken calumnies of the public, and death in 
the midst of defeat. 

The facts we have referred to are of record. The committee 
of Congress that investigated the affair of Roanoke Island de¬ 
clared that the Secretary of War, Mr. J. P. Benjamin, was 
responsible for an important defeat of our arms, which might 
have been safely avoided by him; that he had paid no practical 
attention to the appeals of Gen. Wise; and that he had, by 
plain acts of omission, permitted that general and an incon¬ 
siderable force to remain to meet at least fifteen thousand men, 
well armed and equipped. The committee referred to was 
open to any justification that might have been sought by the 
Secretary of War, or his friends: none was offered; and the 
unanimous conclusion of the committee, in sharp and distinct 
terms, was put upon the public record, charging a Cabinet 
officer with a matter of the gravest offence known to the laws 
and the interests of the country. 

The effect of war is always, in some degree, public demorali¬ 
zation ; and the gravest charges are often lost and swallowed 
up in the quick and feverish excitements of such times. But 
whatever may have been the charities of speedy oblivion with 
respect to the charges against Mr. Benjamin, the public were, 


234 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


at least, not prepared for such an exhibition of tiust and honor 
as was given him by the President, in actually promoting him, 
after the developments of the Roanoke Island disaster, and 
giving him the place in his cabinet of Secretary of State. 
Whatever may have been the merits of this act of the Presi¬ 
dent, it was at least one of ungracious and reckless defiance to 
the popular sentiment; and from the marked event of the 
surrender of Roanoke Island and its consequences, we must 
date the period when the people had their confidence weakened 
in the government, and found no other repose for their trust 
than in the undiminished valor and devoted patriotism of the 
troops in the field. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


235 




CHAPTER X. 


The Situation in Tennessee and Kentucky.—The affair at Woodsonville.—Death of 
Colonel Terry.—The Strength and Material of the Federal Force in Kentucky.—Con¬ 
dition of the Defences oil the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.—The Confederate 
Congress and the Secretary of the Navy.—The Fall of Fort Henry.—Fort Donelson 
threatened.—The Army of General A. S. Johnston.—His Interview with General 
Beauregard.—Insensibility of the Confederate Government to the Exigency.—General 
Johnston’s Plan of Action.— Battle of Fout Donelson. —Carnage and Scenery of the 
Battle-field.—The Council of the Southern Commanders.—Agreement to surrender. 
—Escape of Generals Floyd and Pillow.—The Fall of Fort Donelson develops the 
Crisis in the West.—The Evacuation of Nashville.—The Panic.—Extraordinary 
Scenes.—Experience of the Enemy in Nashville.—The Adventures of Captain John 
Morgan.—General Johnston at Murfreesboro.—Organization of a New Line of Defence 
South of Nashville.—The Defence of Memphis and the Mississippi.—Island No. 10.— 
Serious Character of the Disaster at Donelson.—Generals Floyd and Pillow “ re¬ 
lieved from Command.”—General Johnston’s Testimony in favor of these Officers.— 
President Davis’s Punctilio.—A sharp Contrast.—Negotiation for the Exchange of; 
Prisoners.—A Lesson of Yankee Perfidy.—Mr. Benjamin’s Release of Yankee- 
Hostages. 


The nnequivocal demonstrations of the Federals for an ad¬ 
vance upon Tennessee through Kentucky, urged the Confed¬ 
erate government to send all the disposable forces at its com¬ 
mand to strengthen the army of the southwestern division.. 
Near the close of the year 1861, the Floyd Brigade and Several 
regiments belonging to Tennessee and other Confederate States 
were sent from Virginia to Bowling Green, in southern Ken¬ 
tucky, the principal strategic point of the southwestern army. 
The command of that army was given, as we have seen; to* 
General Albert Sidney Johnston. 

Early in December, the Federal army occupied Muldraughts 
Hill, Elizabethtown, Nolin, Bacon’s Creek, and other points on 
the railroad, from forty to sixty miles below Louisville. Later 
in that month, a body of them advanced to Munfordville, on 
Green River, about seventy-five miles below Louisville, and 
about thirty-five miles above Bowling Green. A portion of 
this advance crossed the river at Munfordville to Woodsonville 
on the opposite shore, where they were attacked by the advance' 
Confederate forces under Brig.-general Hindman and defeated, 
with a loss of about fifty killed. The Confederates lost four 

16 


236 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


killed and nine wounded. Their conduct was marked by the 
most impetuous valor. On charging the enemy, Col. Terry, of 
the Texas Eangers, was killed in the moment of victory 
In the death of Col. Terry, said General Hardee, in his officii 
report, “his regiment had to deplore the loss of a beloved 
and brave commander, and the whole army one of its ablest 
officers.” His name was placed in the front rank of the gal¬ 
lant sons of Texas, whose daring and devoted courage had 
added to the lustre of our arms and to the fruits of more than 
one victory. 

The fight at Woodsonville was on the 17th of December. 
When the enemy reached that place in force, the Confederates 
fell back some fifteen or twenty miles, in the direction of Bowl¬ 
ing Green. For some weeks thereafter, the whole South was 
excited with reports to the effect that the Federals were ad¬ 
vancing upon Bowling Green in three columns, of 20,000 each. 
But the unanticipated success of the Federals in two important 
movements at other points within the department of General 
Johnston, enabled them to accomplish their object without an 
attack upon Bowling Green, and forced upon the Confederates 
the necessity of evacuating that post. 

The North had collected an immense army in Kentucky, 
under command of Major-general Buell, a general of great skill, 
remarkable for the caution of his operations, but having with 
this quality the rare combination of energy, courage, and un¬ 
wearied activity. The whole force of the Federals in Ken¬ 
tucky consisted of about one hundred thousand infantry, eleven 
thousand cavalry, and three thousand artillerists, divided into 
some twenty odd batteries. It is remarkable that this immense 
army was composed almost entirely of Western men, /md that 
the “Yankee” proper was scarcely represented in its ranks. 
Of the Eastern States, only Pennsylvania had troops in Ken¬ 
tucky, and those comparatively few. Every Western State, 
with the exception of Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, was repre¬ 
sented by more or less regiments. 

A large force of the Federals had been collected at Paducah, 
at me mouth of the Tennessee river, with a view to offensive 
operations on the water. This river was an important stream. 
It penetrated Tennessee and Alabama, and was navigable for 
steamers for two or three hundred miles. The Provisional 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 237 

Congress, at Richmond, had appropriated half a million dol¬ 
lars for floating defences on the Tennessee and Cumberland 
rivers: but owing to the notorious inefficiency of the Navy 
Department, presided over by Mr. Mallory of Florida, who 
was remarkable for his obtuseness, slow method, and indiffer¬ 
ent intellect, and whose ignorance even of the geography of 
Kentucky and Tennessee had been broadly travestied in Con¬ 
gress, both rivers were left open to the incursions of the 
enemy. On the Tennessee there was nothing to resist the 
enemy’s advance up the stream but a weak and imperfectly 
constructed fort. The Cumberland was a still more important 
river, and the key to Nashville; but nothing stood in the way 
of the enemy save Fort Donelson, and from that point the 
Federal gunboats could reach Nashville in six or eight hours, 
and strike a vital point of our whole system of defences in the 
West. 

On the 4th of February, the enemy’s expedition up the 
Tennessee, under Gen. Grant, arrived at Fort Henry, the only 
fortification on the Tennessee river of any importance, situ¬ 
ated near the lines of Kentucky and Tennessee, on the east 
bank of the stream. On the morning of the 6th, the fort was 
attacked. 

Our works were untenable, but it concerned us to save our 
little army. To defend the position at the time, Gen.. Tilgh- 
man, commanding division, had Col. Heiman’s 10th Tennessee, 
Irish volunteers, eight hundred strong ; Col. Drake’s Missis¬ 
sippi volunteers, four hundred strong; Col. Hughes’ Alabama 
volunteers, five hundred strong; and Lieut.-col. Gantt’s Ten¬ 
nessee volunteers, cavalry, three hundred strong; one company 
of light artillery, commanded by Lieut. Culbertson, Confed¬ 
erate States artillery, and Captain Jesse Taylor’s company of 
artillery, sixty strong, forming the garrison of Fort Henry, 
and manning its batteries of nine or ten guns. 

A sudden rise in the river found Fort Henry, on the morn¬ 
ing of the attack, completely surrounded by water, containing 
only Capt. Taylor’s company of artillery. The two thousand 
men of all arms, who formed Gen. Tilghman’s command, were 
half a mile off, beyond a sheet of back-water. Gen. Grant’s 
army was on the direct road, between them and Fort Donel¬ 
son, on the Cumberland, and within two miles of the fort, and 


238 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


already in motion to invest it. It was an embarrassing ques¬ 
tion to determine what was to be done. Gen. Tilghman’s little 
army was in the jaws of the lion, and the question was, how 
could it be extricated. 

Gen. Tilghman at once solved the problem, by ordering it to 
retreat by the upper route. He remained with his sixty men 
in the fort, where he was surrounded by water, and unable to 
get away. 

A few minutes before the surrender, the scene in and around 
the fort exhibited a spectacle of fierce grandeur. Many of the 
cabins and tents in and around the fort were in flames : added 
to the scene were the smoke from the burning timber, and the 
curling but dense wreaths of smoke from the guns; the con¬ 
stantly recurring spattering and whizzing of fragments of 
crashing and bursting shells ; the deafening roar of artillery; 
the black sides of five or six gunboats, belching^fire at every 
port-hole; the volumes of smoke settled in dense masses along 
the surrounding back-waters \ and up and over that fog, on the 
heights, the army of Gen. Grant (10,000) deploying around 
our small army, attempting to cut off its retreat. In the midst 
of the storm of shot and shell, the small force outside of the 
fort had succeeded in gaining the upper road, the gunboats 
having failed to notice their movements until they were out of 
reach. 

To give them further time, the gallant Tilghman, exhausted 
and begrimed with powder and smoke, stood erect at the 
middle battery, and pointed gun after gun. It was clear, how¬ 
ever, that the fort could not hold out much longer. A white 
flag was raised by the order of Gen. Tilghman, who remarked, 
“ it is vain to fight longer ; our gunners are disabled ; our guns 
dismounted ; we can’t hold out five minutes longer.” As soon 
as the token of submission was hoisted, the gunboats came 
alongside the fort and took possession of it, their crews giving 
three cheers for the Union. Gen. Tilghman and the small gar¬ 
rison of forty were taken prisoners. 

The fall of Fort Henry was the signal for the direction of 
the most anxious attention to Fort Donelson, on the Cumber 
land. 

We have noticed before the extreme inadequacy of Gen. 
Johnston’s forces. It is doubtful whether he ever had over 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


239 


23,000 effective troops at Bowling Green. Of these, after re¬ 
inforcing Fort Donelson, he had scarcely more than eleven 
thousand effective men. Shortly after the disaster at Mill 
Springs, Gen. Beauregard had been sent from the Potomac to 
Gen. Johnston’s line in Kentucky. At a conference which 
took place between the two generals, Gen. Beauregard ex¬ 
pressed his surprise at the smallness of Gen. Johnston’s forces, 
and was impressed with the danger of his position. There is 
nothing more remarkable in the history of the war than the 
false impressions of the people of the South as to the extent of 
our forces at the principal strategic point in Kentucky, and the 
long and apathetic toleration, by the government in Bichmond, 
of a prospect that promised nothing but eventual disaster. 
On establishing himself in Bowling Green early in October, 
General Johnston wrote to the War Department: “ We have 
received but little accession to our ranks since the Confederate 
forces crossed the line—in fact, no such enthusiastic demon¬ 
stration as to justify any movements not warranted by our 
ability to maintain our own communications.” He repeatedly 
called upon the government for reinforcements. He made a 
call upon several States of the Southwest, including Tennessee, 
for large numbers of troops. The call was revoked at the in¬ 
stance of the authorities in Bichmond, who declined to furnish 
twelve months’volunteers with arms; and Gen. Johnston, thus 
discouraged and baffled by a government which was friendly 
enough to him personally, but insensible to the public exigency 
for which he pleaded, was left in the situation of imminent 
peril, in which Gen. Beauregard was so surprised to find 
him. 

A memorandum was made of the conference between the 
two geperals. In the plans of Gen. Johnston, Gen. Beaure¬ 
gard entirely concurred. It was determined to fight for Hash- 
ville at Donelson, and Gen. Johnston gave the best part of his 
army to do it, retaining only, to cover his front, fourteen thou¬ 
sand men, about three thousand of whom were so enfeebled by 
recent sickness that they were unable to march. 

BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON. 

On tne 9th February, Gen. Pillow had been ordered to pro- 


240 


THE FIRST TEAK OF THE WAR. 


ceed to Fort Donelson and take command at tliat place, which 
it was supposed would be an immediate object of attack by 
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his combined land and naval forces. 
No time was lost in getting the works in defensible condition. 
The armament of the batteries consisted of thirteen guns of 
different calibres. The site of the fortification was plainly un¬ 
favorable in view of a land attack, being commanded by the 
heights above and below the river, and by a continuous range 
of hills all around the work to its rear. A line of intrench- 
ments about two miles in extent was occupied by the troops. 

On the morning of the 13th of February, Gen. Floyd, who 
had been stationed at Bussellville, reached the fort by orders 
transmitted by telegraph from Gen. A. S. Johnston, at Bowling 
Green. Soon after his arrival, the intrenchments were fully 
occupied from one end to the other, and just as the sun rose 
the cannonade from one of the enemy’s gunboats announced 
the opening of the conflict, which was destined to continue for 
several days and nights. The fire soon became general along 
our whole lines. 

During the whole day the enemy kept up a general and ac¬ 
tive fire from all arms upon our trenches. At several points 
along the line he charged with uncommon vigor, but was met 
with a spirit of courageous resistance, which by nightfall had 
driven him, discomfited and cut to pieces, back upon the posi¬ 
tion he had assumed in the morning. The results of the day 
were encouraging. The strength of our defensive line had 
been pretty well tested, and the loss sustained by our forces 
was not large, our men being mostly under shelter in the rifle- 
pits. 

The enemy continued his fire upon different parts of the in¬ 
trenchments throughout the night, which deprived the Con¬ 
federate troops of any opportunity to sleep. They lay that 
night upon their arms in the trenches. A more vigorous at¬ 
tack from the enemy than ever, was confidently expected at the 
dawn of day ; but in this the Confederates w T ere entirely mis¬ 
taken. The day advanced, and no preparation seemed to be 
making for a general onset. The smoke of a large number of 
gunboats and steamboats on the river was observed a short dis¬ 
tance below, and information at the same time was received 
within our lines of the arrival of a large number of new troops 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


241 


greatly increasing the strength of the enemy’s forces, already 
said to be from twenty to thirty thousand strong. 

About three o’clock in the afternoon the enemy’s fleet of 
gunboats, in lull force, advanced upon the fort and opened fire. 
They advanced in the shape of a crescent, and kept up a con¬ 
stant fire for an hour and a half. Once the boats reached a 
point within a few hundred yards of the fort. The effects of 
our shot upon the iron-cased boats were now distinctly visible. „ 
Two or three well-directed shots from the heavy guns of the 
fort drove back the nearest boat; several shot struck another 
boat, tearing her iron case and splintering her timbers, and 
making them crack as if by a stroke of lightning, when she, 
too, fell back. A third boat received several severe shocks, 
making her metal ring and her timbers crack, when the whole 
line gave way and fell rapidly back from the fire of the fort, 
until they passed out of range. 

The incidents of the two days had all been in our favor. 
We had repulsed the enemy in the battle of the trenches, 
broken the line of his gunboats, and discomfited him on the 
water. 

In the mean time, however, reinforcements were continually 
reaching the enemy ; and it might have been evident from the 
first that the whole available force of the Federals on the west¬ 
ern waters could and would be concentrated at Fort Donelson, 
if it was deemed necessary to reduce it. A consultation of the 
officers of divisions and brigades was called by General Floyd, 
to take place after dark. It was represented that it was an ab¬ 
solute impossibility to hold out for any length of time with our 
inadequate number and indefensible position; that there was 
no place within our intrenchments but could be reached by 
the enemy’s artillery from their boats or their batteries; that 
it was but fair to infer that, while they kept up a sufficient fire 
upon our intrenchments to keep our men from sleep and pre¬ 
vent repose, their object was merely to give time to pass a 
column above us on the river, and to cut off our communica¬ 
tions ; and that but one course was left by which a rational 
hope could be entertained of saving the garrison, and that was 
to dislodge the enemy from his position on our left, and thus 
to pass our troops into the open country lying southward 
towards Nashville. 


242 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


It was thus determined to remove from the trenches at an 
early hour the next morning, and attack the enemy in his posi¬ 
tion. There was, in fact, no other alternative. The enemy 
had been busy in throwing his forces of every arm around the 
Confederates, extending his line of investment entirely around 
their position, and completely enveloping them. Every road 
and possible avenue of dej)arture was intercepted, with the cer¬ 
tainty that our sources of supply by the river would soon be 
cut off by the enemy’s batteries placed upon the river above us. 

The sufferings of our army had already been terrible. The 
day of the opening of the battle (Thursday) was very cold, the 
mercury being only ten degrees above zero, and during the 
night, while our troops were watching on their arms in the. 
trenches, it sleeted and snowed. The distance between the two 
armies was so slight that but few of the dead of either could 
be taken off, and many of the wounded who could neither 
walk nor crawl remained for more than two days where they 
fell. Some of our men lay wounded before our earth-works at 
night, calling for help and water, and our troops who went 
out to bring them in were discovered in the moonlight and 
fired upon by the enemy. Many of our wounded were not re¬ 
covered until Sunday morning—some of them still alive, but 
blue with cold, and covered with frost and snow. It would 
have been merciful if each army had been permitted, under a 
flag of truce, to bring off its wounded at the close of each day; 
but it was not so, and they lay in the frost and sleet between 
the two armies—many to hear, but i;one to help them. 

For nearly a week a large portion of our troops had been 
guarding their earth-works, and from the day of the battle 
they had been out in force night and day. Many of them in 
the rifle-pits froze their feet and hands. The severity of the 
cold was such that the clothes of many of the troops were so 
stiff from frozen water, that could they have been taken off, 
they would have stood alone. 

At the meeting of general officers called by Gen. Floyd on 
Friday night, it was unanimously determined to cut open a 
route of exit, and thus to save our army. The plan of attack 
agreed upon and directed by Gen. Floyd was, that Gen. Pillow, 
assisted by Gen. Bushrod Johnson, having also under his com¬ 
mand commanders of brigades, Col. Baldwin, commanding 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


243 


Mississippi and Tennessee troops, and Col. Wharton and Col. 
McCansland, commanding Yirginians, should, with the main 
body of the forces defending our left wing, attack the right 
wing of the enemy occupying the heights reaching to the bank 
of the river; that Gen. Buckner, with the forces under his 
command, and defending the right of oitr line, should strike 
the enemy’s encampment on the Winn’s Ferry road ; and that 
each command should leave in the trenches troops to hold 
them. 

The attack on the left was delayed, as Gen. Pillow moved 
out of his position in the morning. He found the enemy pre¬ 
pared to receive him in advance of his encampment. For two 
hours this principal portion of the battle-field was hotly and 
stubbornly contested, and strewn with piles of dead. The 
''Federal troops in this quarter fought with a steadiness and de¬ 
termination rarely witnessed, and the exhibition of their cour¬ 
age on this field afforded a lesson to the South of a spirit that 
it had not expected in an enemy whose valor it had been ac¬ 
customed to deride and sneer at since the battle of Manassas. 
The Federals did not retreat, but fell back fighting us and con¬ 
testing every inch of ground. Being forced to yield, they re¬ 
tired slowly towards the Winn’s Ferry road, Buckner’s point 
of attack. 

On this road, where Gen. Buckner’s command was expected 
to flank the enemy, it had been forced to retire from his bat¬ 
tery, and as the enemy continued to fall back, Gen. Buckner’s 
troops became united with the forces of Gen. Pillow in engaging 
the enemy, who had again been reinforced. The entire com¬ 
mand of the enemy had been forced to our right wing, and in 
front of Gen. Buckner’s position in the intrenchment. The 
advantage was instantly appreciated. The enemy drove back 
the Confederates, advanced on the trenches on the extreme 
right of Gen. Buckner’s command, getting possession, after a 
stubborn conflict of two hours, of the most important and com¬ 
manding position of the battle-field, being in the rear of our 
river batteries, and, advancing with fresh forces towards our 
left, drove back our troops from the ground that had been won 
in the severe and terrible conflict of the early part of the day. 

The field had been won by the enemy after nine hours of 
conflict. Night found him in possession of all the ground that 


244 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


liad been won by our troops in the morning, and occupying the 
most commanding portion of our intrenched work, to drive 
him from which the most desperate assaults of our troops had 
been unsuccessful. The enemy had been landing reinforce¬ 
ments throughout the day. His numbers had been augmented 
to eighty-two regiments. We had only about 13,000 troops, 
all told. Of these we had lost in three different battles a large 
proportion. The command had been in the trenches night and 
day, exposed to the snow, sleet, mud, and ice-water, without 
shelter, without adequate covering, and without sleep. To re¬ 
new the combat with any hope of successful result was obvi¬ 
ously vain. 

A council of general officers was called at night. It was 
suggested that a desperate onset upon the right of the enemy’s 
forces on the ground might result in the extrication of a con¬ 
siderable proportion of the command. A majority of the coun¬ 
cil rejected this proposition. Gen. Buckner remarked, that it 
would cost the command three-fourths its present numbers to 
cut its way out, and it was wrong to sacrifice three-fourths to 
save one-fourth; that no officer had a right to cause such a 
sacrifice. The alternative of the proposition was a surrender 
of the position and command. Gen. Floyd and Gen. Pillow, 
each, declared that they would not surrender themselves pris¬ 
oners. The former claimed that he had a right individually 
to determine that he would not survive a surrender. He said 
that he would turn over the command to Gen. Buckner, if he 
(Gen. Floyd) could be allowed to withdraw his own particular 
brigade. To this Gen. Buckner consented. Thereupon, the 
command was turned over to Gen. Pillow, he passing it in¬ 
stantly to Gen. Buckner, declaring that “he would neither sur¬ 
render the command nor himself.” Col. Forrest, at the head 
of an efficient regiment of cavalry, was directed to accompany 
Gens. Floyd and Pillow in what was supposed to be an effort 
to pass through the enemy’s lines. Under these circumstances, 
Gen. Buckner accepted the command. He sent a flag of truce 
to the enemy for an armistice of six hours, to negotiate for 
terms of capitulation.* Before the flag and communication 


* The following is a correct list of the Confederate prisoners taken at Fort 
Donelson. The number was reported in the newspapers of the time, South 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


245 


were delivered, Gens. Pillow and Floyd had retired from the 
garrison, and by daylight were pursuing their retreat towards 
Nashville, the largest portion of the command of the latter 
toiling in their flight along the banks of the Tennessee, but 
without a pursuing enemy to harass them. 

The surrender of Donelson was rendered memorable by the 
hardest fighting that had yet occurred in the war, and by one 
of the most terrible and sickening battle-fields that had yet 
marked its devastations, or had ever appealed to the horror- 
stricken senses of humanity. The conflict had run through 
four days and four nights; in which a Confederate force not 
exceeding 13,000, a large portion of whom were illy armed, 
had contended with an army at least three times its number. 
The loss of the Federals was immense, and the proofs of an 
undeniable courage were left in the numbers of their dead on 
the field. In his official report of the battle, Gen. Floyd con¬ 
jectures that the enemy’s loss in killed and wounded reached a 
number beyond 5,000. The same authority gives our loss at 
1,500. Both statements are only conjectural. 

The scene of action had been mostly in the woods, although 
there were two open places of an acre or two where the fight 
had raged furiously, and the ground was covered with dead. 
All the way up to our intrenchments the ^ame scene of death 
was presented. There were two miles of dead strewn thickly, 
mingled with fire-arms, artillery, dead horses, and the para¬ 
phernalia of the battle-field. Federals and Confederates were 
promiscuously mingled, sometimes grappling in the fierce death 
throe, sometimes facing each other as they gave and received 
the fatal shot and thrust, sometimes huddled in grotesque 
shapes, and again heaped in piles, wffiich lay six or seven feet 
deep. Many of the bodies were fearfully mangled. The artil¬ 
lery horses had not hesitated to tread on the wounded, dying, 

as well as North, to have been much larger: Floyd’s Virginia Artillery, 34; 
Gray’s Virginia Artillery, 59; French’s Virginia Artillery, 43; Murray s 
Battery, 97; Cumberland Battery, 55; Fiftieth Tennessee, 485; Fourteenth 
Mississippi, 326; Third Mississippi, 330; Seventh Texas, 354; Twenty-sixth 
Mississippi, 427; Twenty-seventh Alabama, 180; Third Tennessee, 627; Tenth 
Tennessee, 608; Forty-second Tennessee, 494; Forty-eighth Tennessee, 249; 
Forty-ninth Tennessee, 450; Twenty-sixth Tennessee, 65; Second Kentucky, 
136; Third Alabama, 34; Fiftieth Virginia, 10; Fifty-first Tennessee, 17 
Total, 5,079. 




246 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


and dead, and the ponderous artillery wheels crushed limbs 
and skulls. It was an awful sight to behold weak, wounded 
men lifting their feeble hands beneath the horses’ hoofs. The 
Tillage of Dover, which was within our lines, contained in every 
room in every house sick, wounded, or dead men. Bloody rags 
were everywhere, and a door could not be opened without 
hearing groans. 

“ I could imagine,” says an eye-witness' of the field of. car¬ 
nage, u nothing more terrible than the silent indications of 
agony that marked the features of the pale corpses which lay 
at every step. Though dead and rigid in every muscle, they 
still writhed and seemed to turn to catch the passing breeze 
for a cooling breath. Staring eyes, gaping mouths, clinched 
hands, and strangely contracted limbs, seemingly drown into 
the smallest compass, as if by a mighty effort to rend asunder 
some irresistible bond which held them down to the torture of 
which they died. One sat against a tree, and, with mouth and 
eyes wide open, looked up into the sky as if to catch a glance 
at its fleoting spirit. Another clutched the branch of an over¬ 
hanging tree, and hung half-suspended, as if in the death-pang 
he had raised himself partly from the ground; the other had 
grasped his faithful musket, and the compression of his mouth 
told of the determination which would have been fatal to a foe 
had life ebbed a minute later. A third clung with both hands 
to a bayonet which was buried in the ground. Great num¬ 
bers lay in heaps, just as the fire of the artillery mowed them 
down, mangling their forms into an almost undistinguishable 
mass.” 

The display of courage on the part of the Federal troops 
was unquestionable. The battle, however, was fought against 
us by Western men, there not being in the ranks of the enemy, 
as far as known, any men east of the Ohio. The Southern 
people, while contemning the fighting qualities of the Hew 
England “Yankee” and the Pennsylvania Dutchman, were 
constrained to give to the Western men credit for their 
bravery; and many of our own officers did not hesitate to ex¬ 
press the opinion that the Western troops, particularly from L 
southern Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa, were as good fighting 
material as there was to be found on the continent. A Con¬ 
federate officer relates a story of an extraordinary display of 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


247 


spirit on the field of Donelson by a regiment of Zouaves from 
southern Illinois—the “ Egypt” regiment, as it was called. It 
had been completely shattered by the fire of artillery, and was 
scattered over the fields in what the Confederates supposed 
to be an irretrievable rout. A few sharp rallying words from 
their color-bearer, and the men, who a few minutes ago were 
fugitives, flocked to their colors, at the double quick, from dif¬ 
ferent parts of the field, and re-formed in the very face of the 
advancing foe. 

The fall of Fort Donelson developed the crisis in the West, 
which had long existed. The evacuation of Bowling Green 
had become imperatively necessary, and was ordered before 
and executed while the battle was being fought at Donelson. 
Gen. Johnston awaited the event opposite Nashville. The re¬ 
sult of the conflict each day was announced as favorable. At 
midnight on the 15th February, Gen. Johnston received news 
of a glorious victory—at dawn of a defeat. 

The blow was most disastrous. It involved the surrender of 
Nashville, which was incapable of defence from its position, 
and was threatened not Only by the enemy’s ascent of the 
Cumberland, but by the advance of his forces from Bowling 
Green. Not more than 11,000 effective men had been left 
under Gen. Johnston’s command to oppose a column of Gen. 
Buell, of not less than 40,000 troops, while the army from 
Fort Donelson, with the gunboats and transports, had it in 
their power to ascend the Cumberland, so as to intercept all 
communication with the South. No alternative was left but 
to evacuate Nashville or sacrifice the army. 

The evacuation of Nashville was attended by scenes of panic 
and distress on the part of the population unparalleled' in the 
annals of any American city. The excitement was intensified 
by the action of the authorities. Governor Harris mounted a 
horse and galloped through the streets, proclaiming to every¬ 
body the news that Donelson had fallen ; that the enemy were 
coming and might be expected hourly, and that all who wished 
to leave had better do so at once. He next hastily convened 
the Legislature, adjourned it to Memphis, and, with the legis¬ 
lators and the State archives, left the town. 

An earthquake could not have shocked the city more. The 
congregations at the churches were broken up in confusion and 


248 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



dismay; women and children rushed into the streets, wailing 
with terror; trunks were thrown from three-story windows in 
the haste of the fugitives; and thousands hastened to leave 
their beautiful city in the midst of the most distressing scenes 
of terror and confusion, and of plunder by the mob. 

Gen. Johnston had moved the main body of his command 
to Murfreesboro’—a rear-guard being left in Nashville under 
Gen. Floyd, who had arrived from Donelson, to secure the 
stores and provisions. In the first wild excitement of the 
panic, the store-houses had been thrown open to the poor. 
They were besieged by a mob ravenous for spoils, and who had 
to be dispersed from the commissariat by jets of water from a 
steam fire-engine. Women and children, even, were seen 
scudding through the streets under loads of greasy pork, which 
they had taken as prizes from the store-houses. It is believed 
that hundreds of families, among the lower orders of the popu¬ 
lation, secured and secreted government stores enough to open 
respectable groceries. It was with the greatest difficulty that 
Gen. Floyd could restore order and get his martial law into 
any thing like an effective system. Blacks and whites had to 
be chased and captured and forced to help the movement of 
government stores. One man, who, after a long chase, was 
captured, offered fight, and was in consequence shot and badly 
wounded. Not less than one million of dollars in stores was 
lost through the acts of the cowardly and ravenous mob of 
Nashville. Gen. Floyd and Col. Forrest exhibited extraordi¬ 
nary energy and efficiency in getting off government stores. 
Col. Forrest remained in the city about twenty-four hours, with 
only forty men, after the arrival of the enemy at Edgefield. 
These officers were assisted by the voluntary efforts of several 
patriotic citizens of Nashville, who rendered them great as¬ 
sistance. 

These shameful scenes, enacted in the evacuation of Nash¬ 
ville, were nothing more than the disgusting exhibitions of any 
mob brutalized by its fears or excited by rapine. At any rate, 
the city speedily repaired the injury done its reputation by a 
temporary panic, in the spirit of defiance that its best citizens 
and especially its ladies, offered to the enemy. We discover, 
in fact, the most abundant evidence in the Northern news¬ 
papers that the Federals did not find the “ Union” sentiment 


TIIE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


249 


that they expected to meet with in the capital of Tennessee, 
and that, if there were any indications whatever of such senti¬ 
ment, they were “ found only among the mechanics and labor¬ 
ing classes of the city.” The merchants and business men of 
Nashville, as a class, showed a firm, unwavering, and loyal at¬ 
tachment to the cause of the South. The ladies gave instances 
of patriotism that were noble testimonies to their sex. They 
refused the visits of Federal officers, and disdained their recog¬ 
nition ; they collected a fund of money for the especial pur¬ 
pose of contributing to the needs of our prisoners; and, says 
a recipient of the bounty of these noble women, as soon as a 
Confederate prisoner was paroled, and passed into the next 
room, he found pressed in his hands there a sum of money 
given him by the ladies of Nashville. Many of the most re¬ 
spectable of the people had been constrained to leave their 
homes rather than endure the presence of the enemy. The 
streets, which, to confirm the predictions of Northern news¬ 
papers of the welcomes that awaited the “ Union” army in the 
South, should have been gay and decorated, presented to the 
enemy nothing but sad and gloomy aspects. Whole rows of 
houses, which, but a short while ago, were occupied by families 
of wealth and respectability, surrounded by all the circum¬ 
stances that make homes happy and prosperous, stood vacant, 
and the gaze of the passer-by was met, instead of, as in former 
days, with fine tapestry window-curtains and neatly polished 
marble steps, with panes of dust-dimmed glass. 

On the whole, the experience of the enemy in Nashville was 
vastly instructive. The fact that, wherever he had gone, he 
had converted lukewarm Southern districts into Secession 
strongholds, or had intensified the sentiment of opposition to 
him, was as unexpected to him as it was gratifying to us. 
This experience was universal in the war, from the date of the 
occupation of Alexandria, which had voted overwhelmingly 
for the Union in the preliminary stages of the revolution, and 
was subsequently as thoroughly Southern as any town in the 
Confederacy, down to the occupation of Nashville, which had 
at first given some signs of weak submission to its fate, and 
afterwards spurned its invaders with a spirit of defiance, reck¬ 
less of consequences. 

In the neighborhood of Nashville, the enemy was constantly 


THE FIRST YEAR C>F THE WAR. 


250 

harassed by local parties of adventurers, who shot his pickets, 
watched his movements, and attacked detached portions ot his 
forces at various points. The whole country rang with the 
exploits of the gallant and intrepid cavalier, Captain John II. 
Morgan and his brave men, in the vicinity of Nashville. IIis 
squadron belonged to Gen. Hardee’s command, and he had 
been left in command of the forces at Murfreesboro to watch 
the movements of the Federals, which he not only did effec¬ 
tually, but enacted a number of daring adventures within the 
lines of the enemy. 

Scarcely a day passed without some such exploit of Capt 
Morgan and his intrepid partisans. Once he nearly succeeded 
in capturing a Federal general. Another day he attacked a 
party of scouts, and killed the captain. The next exploit 
was to rush into the camp of some regiment, and carry off a 
train of wagons. The most daring of his adventures was his 
sudden appearance in the rear of the enemy, entering with 
forty brave followers the town of Gallatin, twenty-six miles 
north of Nashville, on the Louisville and Nashville railroad. 
On entering the town, Capt. Morgan immediately seized upon 
the telegraph office and the depot. He had presented liimseli 
at the telegraph office, carelessly asking the operator what waa 
the news, when that individual, never for a moment imagining 
who it was that addressed him, replied that there were rumors 
that “ the rebel scoundrel” Morgan was in the neighborhood, 
and proceeded to illustrate his own valor by flourishing a re¬ 
volver, and declaring how anxious he was to encounter the man 
who was creating so much uneasiness and alarm in the country. 
“ You are now speaking to Captain Morgan” was the quiet 
reply of the partisan : “ I am he!” At these words, the pistol 
dropped from the hands of the operator, who entreated the 
mercy of his captor. The poor fellow easily submitted to the 
task assigned to him. of sending a dispatch, in the name ol 
Capt. Morgan, to Prentice, the notorious editor of the Louis¬ 
ville Journal , politely offering to act as his escort on his pro¬ 
posed visit to Nashville. After this amusement, Capt. Morgan 
and his men awaited the arrival of the train from Bowling 
Green. In due time the train came thundering in ; Capt. Mor¬ 
gan at once seized it, and taking five Federal officers who were 
passengers and the engineer of the train prisoners, he burned 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


251 


to cinders all of the cars, with their contents, and then filling 
the locomotive with turpentine, shut down all the valves, and 
started it towards Nashville. Before it had run eight hundred 
yards, the accumulation of steam caused it to explode, shiver¬ 
ing it into a thousand atoms. Capt. Morgan then started 
southward with his prisoners, and made his way safely to the 
Confederate camp. 

On another occasion, while returning alone towards Mur¬ 
freesboro, Capt. Morgan encountered a picket of six of the 
enemy, and captured them and their arms. It was accom¬ 
plished by a bold adventure. He discovered the pickets in a 
house, and having on a Federal overcoat, assumed a bold front, 
and riding up to the sergeant rebuked him for not attending 
properly to his duty, and ordered that the whole party should 
consider themselves under arrest, and surrender their arms. 
The soldiers, not doubting for a moment that they were ad¬ 
dressed by a Federal officer, delivered up their muskets. As 
they were marched into the road, with their faces turned from 
their camp, the sergeant said, “ We are going the wrong way, 
colonel.” “We are not,” was the reply. “I am Captain 
Morgam” 

The name of Captain Morgan was fast becoming famous as 
that of a partisan leader. He was induced to abandon his 
present field of operations to accept promotion in the army, 
being appointed to a colonelcy in the regular military ser¬ 
vice, for which he had been urgently recommended by Gen. 
Hardee. 

Since falling back to Murfreesboro, Gen. Johnston had 
managed, by combining Crittenden’^ division and the fugitives 
from Donelson, to collect an army of 17,000 men. His object 
was now to co-operate with Gen. Beauregard for the defence 
of the Yalley of the Mississippi, on a line of operations south 
of Nashville. The line extending from Columbus, by way of 
Forts Henry and Donelson, had been lost. The disaster had 
involved the surrender of Kentucky, and a large portion of 
Tennessee to the enemy; and it had become necessary to re¬ 
organize a new line of defence south of Nashville, the object 
of which would be to protect the railroad system of the 
Southwest, and to insure the defence of Memphis and the Mis¬ 
sissippi. 


17 


252 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


The work of putting the Mississippi river in a state of com¬ 
plete defence had been intrusted to General Beauregard. On 
abandoning Columbus, he had taken a strong position about 
forty-five miles below it, at Island No. 10. This locality was 
looked upon as the chief barrier to the progress of the Federals 
down the Mississippi. At the island, a bend occurs in the 
river of several miles extent. Around and upon this curve 
were located the towns of New Madrid and Point Pleasant. 
The distance around the bend was about thirty miles, whereas 
the distance across by land from Tiptonville below to the island 
above did not exceed five miles. It was calculated that even 
should the enemy hold Point Pleasant, and get possession of 
New Madrid by our evacuation of that post also, our communi¬ 
cations by water to Tiptonville, and thence by land across the 
bend to Island No. 10, would still remain intact. The island 
was thought to be impregnable. It was flanked on the Mis¬ 
souri side by an extensive swamp, and on the other side by a 
lake of several miles extent, which rendered it impossible for 
the enemy to approach the position by land. 

With this indication of the situation in the West, and the 
operations for the defence of Memphis and the Mississippi, to 
which the southward movement of Gen. Johnston towards the 
left bank of the Tennessee was expected to contribute, we must 
leave, for a short period, our narrative of the movements and 
events of the war in this direction. 

The serious disaster at Donelson appears to have been fully 
appreciated by the Confederate government; and its announce¬ 
ment in Richmond was followed, to the surprise of the public, 
by a communication from President Davis to Congress, on the 
11th of March, declaring the official reports of the affair in¬ 
complete and unsatisfactory, and “ relieving from command” 
Gens. Floyd and Pillow. The main causes of dissatisfaction 
indicated by the President were, that reinforcements were not 
asked for by the commanding generals at Donelson, and that 
the senior generals “ abandoned responsibility,” by transferring 
the command to a junior officer. This act of President Davis 
was the subject of warm and protracted argument in Congress 
and in the newspapers. It w T as shown, by evidence produced 
before Congress, that no reinforcements had been asked for, 
because it was known how much the command of Gen. Johns- 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


253 

ton Lad already been weakened by sending Floyd’s and Buck¬ 
ner’s forces to Donelson; because an overwhelming force of 
the enemy was pressing on his rear; and because Gen. Johns¬ 
ton s troops were on the march between Bowling Green and 
Nashville, and could not reach Fort Donelson in time to change 
the fortunes of the day. 

With reference to the second assignment of cause of the 
Piesident’s displeasure, it was agreed on all sides that the 
transfer of the command by the senior generals was irregular. 
In a letter, however, written to the President by Gen. Johns¬ 
ton himself, which was understood to be private and confiden¬ 
tial, and was, therefore, wholly relieved from any suspicion of 
the gloze of an official report, that officer had directed no cen¬ 
sure upon Gens. Floyd and Pillow. On the contrary, in the 
confidence of this private letter, he wrote to the President, 
“the command was irregularly transferred, and devolved on 
the junior general, but not apparently to avoid any just re¬ 
sponsibility or from any want of personal or moral intrepidity 
and he expressed continued “ confidence in the gallantry, the 
energy, and the devotion to the Confederacy,” of both Gens. 
Floyd and Pillow, which was testified especially in the case 
of Gen. Floyd, by assigning him, after the fall of Donelson, to 
the important duty of proceeding to Chattanooga to defend 
the approaches towards northern Alabama and Georgia, and 
the communication between the Mississippi and the Atlantic. 
This was the private and unrestrained testimony of Gen. Johns¬ 
ton. With perhaps a superior military sensitiveness of “ir¬ 
regularity,” Mr. Davis repudiated the explanations of the com¬ 
manding general in the field; deprived Generals Floyd and 
Pillow of their commands; and offered the spectacle to the 
country of a President with one hand sacrificing two brave 
officers who had contributed to the country’s glory and safety 
in more than one victory, for a military punctilio, and with 
the other elevating to the highest office in his gift a man who, 
as Attorney-general, Secretary of War, and, at last, Secretary 
of State, seemed to enjoy the monopoly of the lucre and hon¬ 
ors of state, and who had been charged, by the official report 
of a general in the field, and by the deliberate and unanimous 
verdict of a committee of Congress, with the plain and exclu¬ 
sive responsibility of the disaster of Eoanoke Island. The 


254 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


contrast between these two acts needed no addition of argu¬ 
ment to convince the public mind that its government was not 
above the errors of judgment or the partialities of human affec* 
tion. 

The disposition of the Confederate prisoners taken at Fort 
Donelson gave an exhibition of vile perfidy on the part of the 
North, to which there is no parallel to be found in the history 
of civilized warfare, or in all the crooked paths of modern 
diplomacy. Instead of these prisoners being discharged by the 
North according to the understanding existing between the 
two governments, they were carried off into the Western 
interior, where they were treated with indignities and made a 
spectacle for mobs, who jeered at them because they did not 
have uniforms and warm coats, because many of the poor 
fellows had nothing better than horse blankets, rags, and coffee 
sacks around their shoulders, and because the “ rebels”— 
whose true glory a just and generous spirit would have found 
in their coarse and tattered garbs and marks of patient suffer¬ 
ing—lacked the fine and showy equipments of the Federal 
troops. This act of bad faith on the part of the North is re 
markable enough for a full and explicit history of the circum 
stances in which it was committed. 

Permission had been asked by the Northern government foi 
two commissioners, Messrs. Fish and Ames, to visit their 
prisoners of w r ar within the jurisdiction of the South. Our 
government, while denying this permission, sought to improve 
the opportunity by concerting a settled plan for the exchange 
of prisoners; and for the execution of this purpose Messrs. 
Conrad and Seddon were, deputed as commissioners to meet 
those of the Northern government under a flag of truce at 
Norfolk. 

Subsequently a letter from Gen. Wool was addressed to Gen. 
Huger, informing him that he, Gen. Wool, had full authority 
to settle any terms for the exchange of prisoners, and asking 
an interview on the subject. General Howell Cobb was then 
appointed by the government to mediate with Gen. Wool, and 
to settle a permanent plan for the exchange of prisoners during 
the war. 

In the letter to General Huger, dated the 13th of February, 
1862, General Wool wrote: 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


255 


“ I am alone clothed with full 'power for the purpose of arranging for the 
exchange of prisoners. Being thus empowered, I am ready to confer with you 
on the subject, or the Honorable Messrs. Seddon and Conrad, or any other 
persons appearing for that purpose. I am prepared to arrange for the resto¬ 
ration of all the prisoners to their homes on fair terms of exchange, man for 
man, and officer for officer of equal grade, assimilating the grade of officers 
the army and navy, when necessary, and agreeing upon equitable terms for 
the number of men or officers, of inferior grade, to be exchanged for any of 
higher grade when the occasion shall arrive. That all the surplus prisoners 
on either side be exchanged on parole, with the agreement that any prisoners 
of war taken by the other party shall be returned in exchange as fast as captured, 
and this system to be continued while hostilities continue. 

“ I would further inform you, or any other person selected for the purpose 
of making arrangements for the exchange of prisoners, that the prisoners 
taken on board of vessels, or otherwise in maritime conflict, by the forces of 
the United States, have been put, and are now held, only in military custody, 
and on the same footing as other prisoners taken in arms.” 

The proposition, it appears, was readily accepted by our 
government, and a memorandum made as a basis for a cartel. 
It was proposed in this memorandum that the prisoners of war 
in the hands of each government should be exchanged, man for 
man, the officers being assimilated as to rank, &c.; that our 
privateersmen should be exchanged on the footing of prisoners 
of war; that any surplus remaining on either side, after these 
exchanges, should be released, and that hereafter, during the 
whole continuance of the war, prisoners taken on either side 
should be paroled within ten days after their capture, and de¬ 
livered on the frontier of their own country. 

General Wool promptly agreed to all the propositions except 
two. In lieu of the compensation basis of equivalents contain¬ 
ed in one of the items of the memorandum, he proposed the 
cartel of equivalents adopted by Great Britain and the United 
States, in the war of 1812, and General Cobb accepted it. 

Tie also objected to the provisions in another item, which 
required each party to pay the expense of transporting their 
prisoners to the frontier of the country of the prisoners. The 
provision met his entire approval, but he did not feel authorized, 
by his instructions, to incorporate it into the proposed cartel, 
and, therefore, desired time to consult his government on the 
subject. 

The interview closed with the promise from General Wool 
that he would notify General Cobb, as soon as he could hear 
from his government, on that point. 


256 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAK. 


On the first of March General Cobb held his second interview 
with him, in which he (General Cobb) proposed to enter into a 
cartel , containing the stipulations previously set forth. Gen. 
Wool then replied that his government would not agree to the 
proposition that each party should pay the expense of trans¬ 
porting their prisoners to the frontier, when General Cobb 
promptly waived it, thus leaving the cartel free from all his 
objections, and just what General Wool had himself proposed 
in his letter of the 13th February, to General Huger. 

Upon this, General Wool informed General Cobb that his 
government had changed his instructions, and abruptly broke 
off the negotiation. 

In the mean time our government, in a very curious or very 
foolish anticipation of the good faith of the North, had directed 
the discharge of the prisoners held by us as hostages for the 
safety and proper treatment of our privateersmen, who were 
confined in felons’ cells and threatened with the gallows. Cols. 
Lee, Cogswell, and Wood, and Major Revere were sent to their 
own country; the remaining hostages were brought on parole 
from distant points to Richmond, on their way to be delivered 
up, at the expense of this government, and their surrender 
was only suspended on receipt of intelligence from General 
Cobb, that he saw reason to suspect bad faith on the part of 
the enemy. 

The perfidy of the North was basely accomplished.* The 


* This act of deception on the part of the North was hut one of a long 
series of acts of Yankee perfidy, and of their abnegation of the rights of 
civilized war. When McDowell left Washington city to take Richmond, his 
army was supplied with handcuffs to iron rebels. After the battle of Bull 
Run they sent a white flag to ask permission to bury their dead. It was 
humanely granted. They left their dead to bury their dead, and attempted, 
under the protection of that white flag, to erect batteries for our destruction. 
On the battle-field of Manassas they unfurled a Confederate flag, and shouted 
to our troops not to fire upon them, that they were our friends, and then they 
fired upon our troops and fled. At Manassas and Pensacola they repeatedly 
and deliberately fired upon our hospitals, when over them a yellow flag was 
waving. In Hampton Roads they hung out a white flag, and then prostituted 
the protection it secured to them to the cowardly assassination of our brave 
seamen. At Newbern, in violation of the laws of war, they attempted to shell 
a city containing several thousand women and children, before either demand¬ 
ing a surrender, or giving the citizens notice of their intentions. A Kentuckian 
went into a Federal camp to reclaim a fugitive slave, and they tied him up 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


257 


correspondence of the Federal authorities, to which we have 
alluded, on this subject, constitutes a chapter of diplomacy 
qualified to attract the scorn of all civilized and honorable 
nations. At the time when it was believed our government 
held the larger number of prisoners, the Federal government 
proposed to exchange all prisoners, and to place on parole, in 
their own country, the surplus held by either party; and our 
government agreed to the proposition. Before the agreement 
could be reduced to writing, and signed by the parties, the 
casualties of war, in the fall of Fort Donelson, reversed this 
state of things, and gave the Federal government the larger 
number of prisoners. With this change of things that govern¬ 
ment changed its policy, and deliberately, and perfidiously, 
and shamelessly receded from the propositions to which it had 
been distinctly committed by every obligation of truth, honor, 
and good faith. 

While Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of War, by a curious act of 
supererogation was releasing our most important prisoners of 
war m advance of the conclusion of negotiations, sending them 
North without waiting to have them regularly and safely ex¬ 
changed under a flag of truce in Norfolk harbor, the enemy 
were conveying the prisoners captured at Fort Donelson to 
Chicago and other points more distant from their homes, and 
were parading the officers who fell into their power through 
the entire breadth of the land, from western Tennessee, to Fort 
Warren in Boston harbor, where they were incarcerated. For 
the prisoners so curiously, and with such unnecessary haste, 
dispatched to the North by Mr. Benjamin, not a single officer 
taken at Fort Donelson, nor a single captive privateersman, had 
been restored to his home. With an excess of zeal well calcu- 

and gave him twenty-five lashes upon his hare hack, in the presence of his 
runaway slave. It was repeatedly proposed by the people of the South to 
treat such an enemy without ceremony or quarter, by hanging out the black 
flag, and making the war a helium internecinum ; but while the South debated, 
talked, and threatened, the North acted, availing itself of the most ferocious 
and brutal expedients of the war, arming the slaves, breaking faith on every 
occasion of expediency, disregarding flags of truce, stealing private property, 
ravis hin g women, bombarding hospitals, and setting at defiance every law of 
civilized warfare. Such was the perfidy and brutality of the North, to which 
the South responded with the puerile threat of a black flag, which was never 
hoisted, and which did not even serve the purposes of a scarecrow to its bold 
and unscrupulous enemy. 



i!58 


THE FIRST YEAE OF THE WAR. 


lated to draw attention from his own part of the transaction, 
Mr. Benjamin proposed, as a retaliation upon the perfidy of the 
North, to discharge our own citizens who were subject to 
parole; but happily a counsel, which proposed to redress a 
wrong by an act disreputable to ourselves and in violation of 
what were the obligations of our own honor in the sight of the 
civilized world, was rejected alike by the government and the 
country, who were content to commit the dishonor of their 
enemy, without attempting to copy it under pleas of retaliation, 
to the justice of history and the future judgments of the world. 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


259 


A 


CHAPTER XI. 


Organization of the permanent Government of the South.—The Policy of England. 
—Declaration of Earl Russell.—Onset of the Northern Forces.—President Davis’s 
Message to Congress.—The Addition of New States and Territories to the Southern 
Confederacy.—Our Indian Allies.—The Financial Condition, North and South.—De¬ 
ceitful Prospects of Peace.—Effect of the Disasters to the South.—Action of Congress. 
—The Conscript Bill.—Provisions vs. Cotton.—Barbarous Warfare of the North.—The 
Anti-slavery Sentiment.—How it was unmasked in the War.—Emancipation Measures 
in the Federal Congress.—Spirit of the Southern People.—The Administration of Jef- 
fersorf Davis.—His Cabinet.—The Defensive Policy.—The Naval Engagement in 
Hampton Roads. —Iron-clad Vessels.—What the Southern Government might have 
done.—The Narrative of General Price’s Campaign resumed.—His Retreat into Ar¬ 
kansas.—The Battle of Elk Horn. —Criticism of the Result.—Death of General Mc¬ 
Culloch.—The Battle of Valverde. —The Foothold of the Confederates in New 
Mexico.—Change of the Plan of Campaign in Virginia. - Abandonment of the Potomac 
Line by the Confederates.—The Battle of Kernstown.— Colonel Turner Ashby.— 
Appearance of McClellan’s Army on the Peninsula.—Firmness of General Magruder. 
—The New Situation of the War in Virginia.—Recurrence of Disasters to the South 
on the Water.—The Capture of Newbern—Fall of Fort Pulaski and Fort Macon.— 
Common Sense vs. “ West Point.” 

The permanent government of the Confederate States was 
organized on the 22d day of February, in a season of reverses 
to our arms and at a dark hour in our national fortunes. 

All hopes of foreign interference were positively at an end. 
On the meeting of the British Parliament in the early part of 
February, Earl Russell had declared that the blockade of the 
American ports had been effective from the 15th of August, 
in the face of the facts that the dispatches of Mr. Bunch, the 
English consul at Charleston, said that it was not so; and that 
authentic accounts and letters of merchants showed that any 
ships, leaving for the South, could be insured by a premium of 
seven and a-half to fifteen per cent. England had accepted 
the Treaty of Paris, and yet did not hesitate to violate the 
principles that had been definitely consecrated by article four 
of that treaty, by declaring the Federal blockade effective, for 
no other reason than that “ considerable prudence was neces¬ 
sary in the American (question. ,5 In the House of Commons, 
Mr. Gregory asserted that the non-observation of the Treaty of 


260 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


Paris was a deception for tlie Confederate States, and an am¬ 
buscade for the interests of commerce throughout the world. 

The Northern army had ( remained quiet on the Potomac, 
amusing the Southern people with its ostentatious parades and 
gala-day sham fights, while the government at Washington 
was preparing an onset all along our lines from Ilatteras to 
Kansas. Burnside had captured Boanoke Island in the east, 
while Fort Henry on the Tennessee and Fort Donelson on the 
Cumberland had sent the echo back to Albemarle. Buffeting 
sleet and storm, and by forced marches, the enemy had seized 
Bowling Green, while Sigel fell suddenly upon Springfield ; 
the enemy’s gunboats threatened Savannah, and Gen. Butler 
hurried off his regiments and transports to the Gulf, for an at¬ 
tack via Ship Island upon New Orleans. 

In his message to Congress, President Davis declared that 
the magnified proportions of the war had occasioned serious 
disasters, and that the effort was impossible to protect by our 
arms the whole of the territory of the Confederate States, sea¬ 
board and inland. To the popular complaint of inefficiency in 
the departments of the government, he declared that they had 
done all which Jiuman power and foresight enabled them to 
accomplish. 

The increase of our territory since the opening of the war 
was scarcely a cause for boast. The addition of new States 
and Territories had greatly extended our lines of defence. 
Missouri had been unable to wrest from the enemy his occu¬ 
pancy of her soil. Kentucky had been admitted into the Con¬ 
federacy only to become the theatre of active hostilities, and, 
at last, to be abandoned to the enemy. The Indian treaties 
effected by the Provisional Congress, through the mediation 
of Gen. Albert Pike, had secured us a rich domain, but a trou¬ 
blesome and worthless ally.* It was possible, however, that 

* In December last, Col. James McIntosh was sent from Arkansas into the 
Cherokee Nation to chastise the rebellious Creek chief Opoth-lay-oho-la, which 
he did with good effect. The results of the incursion were thus enumerated 
by Col. McIntosh: “We captured one hundred and sixty women and children, 
twenty negroes, thirty wagons, seventy yoke of oxen, about five hundred In¬ 
dian horses, several hundred head of cattle, one hundred sheep, and a great 
quantity of property of much value to the enemy. The stronghold of Opoth- 
lay-oho-la was completely broken up and his force scattered in every direction, 
destitute of the simplest elements of subsistence.” 



THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


261 


in this domain there might be secured a rich inheritance for 
posterity. It comprised an area of more than eighty thousand 
square miles, diversified by mountains filled with iron, coal, 
and other mineral treasures, and broad-reaching plains, with 
the Eed Eiver running along its southern border, the Arkansas 
river almost through its centre, and their tributaries reticulat¬ 
ing its entire surface. 

At the time of the inauguration of our permanent govern¬ 
ment, there was, however, one aspect of our affairs of striking 
encouragement. It was the condition of the finances of the 
government. We had no floating debt. The credit of the 
government was unimpaired among its own people. The 
total expenditures for the year had been, in round numbers, 
$170,000,000 ; less than one-third of the sum expended by the 
enemy to conquer us, and less than the value of a single article 
of export—the cotton crop of the year. 

In the Federal Congress it was estimated that, at the end of 
the fiscal year (June, 1862), the public debt of the Northern 
government would be about $750,000,000, and that the de¬ 
mands on the treasury, to be met by taxation, direct and indi¬ 
rect, would not be less than $165,000,000 per annum. 

The problem of the Northern finances was formidable enough. 
It was calculated that the Federal tax would be from four to 
six times greater for each State than their usual assessments 
heretofore, and doubts were expressed, even by Northern jour- 


The Indian Territory (not including the Osage country—its extent "being 
unknown—nor the 800,000 acres belonging to the Cherokees, which lie between 
Missouri and Kansas) embraces an area of 82,073 square miles—more than 
fifty-two millions of acres, to wit: 

The land of the Cherokees, Osages, Quapaws, Senecas, and Senecas and 
Skawnees, 38,105 square miles, or 24,388,800 acres. 

That of the Creeks and Seminoles, 20,531 square miles, or 13,140,000 acres. 

That of the Reserve Indians, and the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 23,437 
square miles, or 15,000,000 acres. 

Total 82,073 square miles, or 52,528,800 acres. 

Its population consists of Cherokees, 23,000 ; Osages, 7,500 ; Quapaws, 320 ; 
Creeks, 13,500 ; Seminoles, 2,500; Reserve Indians, 2,000 ; Choctaws, 17,500; 
and Chickasaws, 4,700—making an aggregate of 71,520 souls. 

This Indian country is, in many respects, really a magnificent one. It is 
one of the brightest and fairest parts of the great West, and only needs the 
devel rpment of its resources to become the equal of the most favored lands on 
this continent. 



262 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


nals in the interest of the government, if it could be raised in 
any other way than by practical confiscation. 

The South, however, had already lingered too long in the 
delusive promise of the termination of the war by the breaking 
down of the finances of the Northern government, and had 
entertained prospects of peace in the crude philosophy and cal¬ 
culations of the newspaper article, without looking to those 
great lessons of history which showed to what lengths a war 
might be carried despite the difficulties of finance, the confines 
of reason, and the restraints of prudence, when actuated by 
that venom and desperation which were shown alike by the 
people and government of the North. The very extent of the 
Northern expenditure should have been an occasion of alarm 
instead of self-complacency to the South; it showed the tre¬ 
mendous energy of the North and the overpowering measure 
of its preparation; it argued a most terrible degree of despera¬ 
tion ; and it indicated that the North had plunged so far into 
the war, that there was but little sane choice between striving 
to wade through it, and determining to turn back with certain 
and inevitable ruin in its face. 

Fortunately, the lessons of its late disasters were not entirely 
lost upon the government of the Confederate States. They 
happily gave fresh impulses to the authorities, and were pro¬ 
ductive of at least some new and vigorous political measures. 
The most important of these was a conscript bill for increasing 
our forces in the field. The enlargement of the proportions of 
the war demanded such a measure; the conflict, in which we 
were now engaged, extended from the shores of the Chesapeake 
to the confines of Missouri and Arizona. 

The measures and expressions of the government plainly 
intimated to the people, who had been so persistently incredu¬ 
lous of a long war, that it had become probable that the war 
would be continued through a series of years, and that prepa¬ 
rations for the ensuing campaigns should be commensurate with 
such a prospect. In Congress, resolutions were passed urging 
the planters to suspend the raising of cotton, and to plant pro¬ 
vision crops, so as to provide for the support of the army. 
This change in the direction of our industry, besides increasing 
the capacity of the South to sustain itself, aimed a blow at the 
well-known selfish calculations of England to repay herself for 


TIIE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


263 


past losses from tlie blockade, in the cheap prices expected 
from the excessive supply of two years’ crops of cotton in the 
South. The South was not to be the only or chief loser in the 
diminished production of her great staple and the forced change 
in her industrial pursuits. For every laborer who was divert¬ 
ed from the culture of cotton in the South, perhaps, four times 
as many elsewhere, who had found subsistence in the various 
employments growing out of its use, would be forced also out 
of their usual occupations. The prospect of thus bringing ruin 
upon the industrial interests of other countries was not pleas¬ 
ing to our people or our government; although it was some 
consolation to know that England, especially, might yet feel, 
through this change of production in the South, the conse¬ 
quences of her folly and the merited fruits of her injustice to a 
people who had been anxious for her amity, and had at one 
time been ready to yield to her important commercial privi¬ 
leges. 

In the growing successes of the Northern armies, the spirit 
of the Southern people came to the aid of their government 
with new power, and a generosity that was quite willing to for¬ 
get all its shortcomings in the past. The public sentiment had 
been exasperated and determined in its resolution of resistance 
to the last extremity by the evidences of ruin, barbarism, and 
shameless atrocities that had marked the paths of the progress 
of the enemy. The newspapers were filled with accounts of 
outrages of the enemy in the districts occupied by him. By 
his barbarous law of confiscation, widows and orphans had been 
stripped of death’s legacies; he had overthrown municipalities 
and State governments; he had imprisoned citizens without 
warrant, and regardless of age or sex; he had destroyed com¬ 
merce, and beggared the mechanic and manufacturer; he had 
ripped open the knapsacks of our captured soldiery, robbing 
them of clothing, money, necessaries of life, and even of the 
instruments of their surgeons. The Southern people consider¬ 
ed that they were opposing an enemy who had proved himself 
a foe to mankind, religion, and civilization. 

The venomous spirit of Abolition had been free to develop 
itself in the growing successes of the Northern arms. It is a 
curious commentary on the faith of the people of the North, or 
rather a striking exposure of the subserviency of all the ex- 


264 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


pressions of opinion on tlie part of that people to considerations 
of expediency , that, in the beginning of hostilities, even after 
the proclamation of war by President Lincoln, when it was yet 
thought important to affect moderation, fugitive slaves from 
Virginia were captured in the streets of Washington, and, by 
the direct authority of the Northern government, returned to 
their masters! A few months later, negro slaves were kid¬ 
napped from their masters by the Federal army, under the 
puerile and nonsensical pretence of their being “ contraband of 
war.” The anti-slavery purposes of the war rapidly developed 
from that point. The Northern journals declared that the ex¬ 
cision of slavery was one of the important objects of the war; 
that the opportunity was to be taken in the prosecution of hos¬ 
tilities to crush out what had been the main cause of difference, 
and thus to assure the fruit of a permanent peace. In his mes¬ 
sage to the Federal Congress in December, Mr. Lincoln had 
hinted that u all indispensable means ” must be employed to 
preserve the Union. An order was published by the War 
Department making it the occasion of a court-martial for any 
army officer to return any negro slave within his lines to his 
master. It was followed by the explanation of Mr. Lincoln’s 
former hint. In an executive message to the Federal Congress, 
tlie policy of “ the gradual abolishment of slavery,” with the 
pretence of “pecuniary aid” to States adopting such policy, 
was advised; it was approved in the House of Eepresentatives, 
by a vote of 88 to 31; and about the same time a bill was 
introduced into the Senate for the forcible emancipation of the 
negro slaves in the District of Columbia, which was subse¬ 
quently passed. 

These bitter exhibitions of the North had envenomed the 
war; its sanguinary tides rose higher; its battle-fields emu 
lated in carnage the most desperate in modern history; flags 
of truce were but seldom used, and the amenities of intercourse 
between belligerents were often slighted by rude messages of 
defiance. Battles had become frequent and really bloody. But 
they were no longer decisive 6f a nation’s fate. The campaign 
covered the whole of a huge territory, and could only be de¬ 
cided by complicated movements, involving great expenditure 
of troops and time. 

The Southern people, however, were again aroused, and 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


265 


nothing was wanting but wisdom, energy, and capacity on the 
part of the government to have inaugurated another series of 
brilliant achievements, such as those which rendered illustrious 
the first months of the war. The rush of men to the battle¬ 
field, which was now witnessed in every part of the South, was 
beyond all former example; and if the government had met 
this mighty movement of the people with a corresponding 
amplitude of provision and organization, the cause of the South 
might have been reckoned safe beyond peradventure. 

Unfortunately, however, President Davis was not the man to 
consult the sentiment and wisdom of the people; he desired to 
signalize the infallibility of his own intellect in every measure 
of the revolution, and to identify, from motives of vanity, his 
own personal genius with every event and detail of the re¬ 
markable period of history in which he had been called upon 
to act. This imperious (;onceit seemed to swallow up every 
other idea in his mind. By what was scarcely more than a 
constitutional fiction, the President of the Confederate States 
was the head of the army; but Mr. Davis, while he made 
himself the supreme master of* the civil administration of the 
government, so far as to take the smallest details within his 
control, and to reduce Jiis cabinet officers to the condition of 
head clerks, insisted also upon being the autocrat of the army, 
controlling the plans of every general in the field, and dictating 
to him the precise limits of every movement that was under¬ 
taken. Many of our generals fretted under this pragmatism of 
an executive, who, instead of attending to the civil affairs of 
the government and correcting the monstrous abuses that were 
daily pointed out by the newspapers in the conduct of the 
departments, was unfortunately possessed w T ith the vanity that 
he was a great military genius, and that it was necessary for 
him to dictate, from his cushioned seat in Richmond, the de¬ 
tails of every campaign, and to conform every movement in 
the field to the invariable formula of “ the defensive policy.”* 


* The following extract of terse criticism on offensive and defensive warfare 
is taken from a small work written by one of Napoleon’s generals in 1815, and 
revised in 1855. The writer could not have written with more aptitude to 
the existing contest, if the errors and unfortunate demonstrations of President 
Davis’s defensive policy had been before his eyes: “ The offensive is the proper 
character which it is essential to give to every war; it exalts the courage of 



266 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


In a revolutionary leader, something more is wanted than 
scholarly and polished intellect. The history of the world 
shows that, in such circumstances, the plainest men, in point of 
learning and scholarship, have been the most/successful, and 
that their elements of success have been quick apprehension, 
practical judgment, knowledge of human nature, and, above 
all, a disposition to consult the aggregate wisdom of the people, 
and to increase their stores of judgment, by deigning to learn 
from every possible source of practical wisdom within their 
reach. 

President Davis was not a man to consult, even in the small¬ 
est matter of detail, the wisdom of others, or to relax his pur¬ 
poses or personal preferences, at the instance of any consider¬ 
ation that might compromise him in respect of conceit or 
punctilio. About nothing connected with the new government 
had the popular will been so clearly and emphatically express¬ 
ed, as the necessity of a reorganization of the Cabinet. ^Nobody 
expected those offices to be permanently filled by the provi¬ 
sional appointees. They were put there under an emergency ; 
in some instances simply as compliments to certain States, and 
without the slightest expectation that they would be imposed 
on the country for seven long years. Had the Union continued, 
and Mr. Davis been elected to the Presidency, the selection of 
such a Cabinet of intellectual pigmies from the nation at large 
would have astounded the public. The two great branches of 
the administration—the War and the Havy Departments— 
were in the hands of men who had neither the respect, nor the 
confidence of the public. Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of War, 
had been seriously injured, by a number of doubtful official 
acts, in the public estimation, which never held him higher 


the soldier; it disconcerts the adversary, strips from him the initiative, and 
diminishes his means. Do not wait for the enemy in your own fireplaces, go 
always to seek him in his own home, when you will find opportunity at the 
same time to live at his expense, and to strip from him his resources. In 
penetrating his territory, commence by acting en masse with all forces, and be 
sure that the first advantages are yours. * * * * Never adopt the 
defensive, unless it is impossible for you to do otherwise. If you are reduced 
to this sad extremity, let it be in order to gain time, to wait for your reinforce¬ 
ments, drill your soldiers, strengthen your alliances, draw the enemy upon 
bad ground, lengthen the base of his operations; and let an ulterior design to 
take the offensive be without ceasing the end of all your actions.” 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


267 


than a smart, expeditious, and affable official. Mr. Mallory, 
the Secretary of the Navy, had, in the old government, in 
which he was chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval 
Affairs, been the butt of every naval officer in the country for 
his ignorance, his sang-froid , his slow and blundering manner, 
and the engrossment of his mind by provisions to provide 
gratifications for his social habits. 

President Davis refused to concede any thing to public sen¬ 
timent with reference to the reorganization of his cabinet; 
although it is to be remarked that the demand for change was 
made not by a popular clamor, which a wise ruler would have 
done right to disregard and to contemn, but by that quiet, con¬ 
servative, and educated sentiment which no magistrate in a re¬ 
publican government had the right to disregard. Mr. Mallory 
was retained at the head of the navy; Mr. Benjamin was pro¬ 
moted to the Secretaryship of the State, and the only material 
change in the cabinet was the introduction as Secretary of War 
of General Randolph, of Yirginia, a gentleman whose sterling 
personal worth made him acceptable to all parties, and prom¬ 
ised at least some change for the better in the administration 
of a government that had been eaten up by servility, and had 
illustrated nothing more than the imperious conceit of a single 
man. 

The Confederate Congress had passed a bill to create the 
office of commanding general, who should take charge of the 
military movements of the war. The bill was vetoed by Presi¬ 
dent Davis ; but, at the same time, the unsubstantial show of 
compliance which had been made with reference to the Cabinet 
was repeated with reference to the commanding general, and 
Mr. Davis appointed Gen. Lee to the nominal office of com¬ 
manding general, the order, however, which nominated him 
providing that he should “ act under the direction of the presi¬ 
dent.” Thus it was that Mr. Davis kept in his hands the 
practical control of every military movement on the theatre 
of the war; and it was very curious, indeed, that the servile 
newspapers, which applauded in him this single and imperious 
control of the conduct of the war, were unmindful of the plain 
and consistent justice of putting on his shoulders that exclu¬ 
sive responsibility for disasters which is inseparable from the 
honors of practical autocracy. 


18 


268 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


¥e have referred to the dark period and uncompro nising 
auspices in which the permanent government of the Confeder¬ 
ate States was inaugurated. Across the dreary tract of dis¬ 
aster there were, however, sudden and fitful gleams of light, 
such as the undaunted courage of our troops and the variable 
accidents of war might give in such circumstances of misgov- 
ernment as were adverse or embarrassing to a grand scale of 
successes. Of these, and of the disasters mingled with them, 
we shall proceed to treat in the progress of the narrative of the 
external events of the war. 


THE NAVAL ENGAGEMENT IN HAMPTON ROADS. 

In the progress of the war, attention had been directed, on 
both sides, to different classes of naval structure, composed of 
iron, such as floating batteries, rams, &c. On the 12th of 
October, an affair had occurred near the mouth of the Missis¬ 
sippi river, in which a partially submerged iron ram, the Ma¬ 
nassas, attacked the Federal blockading fleet at the head of 
the Passes, sinking one of them, the Preble, and driving the 
remainder of the fleet out of the river. This, the first of our 
naval exploits, was to be followed by adventures on a larger 
and more brilliant scale. 

As far back as the month of June, 1861, the little energy 
displayed by the Navy Department had been employed in 
building a single iron-clad naval structure. In the destruction 
of the navy-yard at Norfolk, at the commencement of the war, 
the steam-frigate Merrimac had been burned and sunk, and 
her engine greatly damaged by the enemy. However, the 
bottom of the hull, boilers, and heavy and costly parts of the 
engine were but little injured, and it was proposed of these to 
construct a casemated vessel with inclined iron-plated sides 
and submerged ends. The novel plan of submerging the ends 
of the ship and the eaves of the casement was the peculiar and 
distinctive feature of the Yirginia, as the new structure was 
called. It was never before adopted. The resistance of iron 
plates to heavy ordnance, whether presented in vertical planes 
or at low angles of inclination, had been investigated in Eng¬ 
land before the Yirginia was commenced; but, in the absence 
cf accurate data, the inclination of the plates of the Yirginia 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


269 

and their thickness and form had to be determined by actual 
experiment. 

With the completion of the Virginia, the Confederate squad¬ 
ron in the James river, under command of Flag-officer Frank¬ 
lin Buchanan, was as follows: steamer Virginia, ten guns ^ 
steamer Patrick Henry, twelve guns; steamer Jamestown, two 
guns ; and gunboats Teazer, Beaufort, and Raleigh, each one 
gun—total, 27 guns. 

On the morning of the 8th of March, about eleven o’clock, 
the Virginia left .the navy-yard at Norfolk, accompanied by 
the Raleigh and Beaufort, and proceeded to Newport News to 
engage the enemy’s frigates Cumberland and Congress, and 
their gunboats and shore batteries. On passing Sewell’s Point, 
Capt. Buchanan made a speech to the men. It was laconic. 
He said : “My men, you are now about to face the enemy. 
You shall have no reason to complain of not fighting at close 
quarters. Remember, you fight for your homes and your 
country. You see those ships—you must sink them. I need 
not ask you to do it. I know you will do it.” 

At this time, the Congress was lying close to the batteries 
at Newport News, a little below them. The Cumberland was 
lying immediately opposite the batteries. The Virginia passed 
the Congress, giving her a broadside, which was returned with 
very little effect, and made straight for the Cumberland. In 
the midst of a heavy fire from the Cumberland, Congress, gun¬ 
boats, and shore batteries concentrated on the Virginia, she 
stood rapidly on towards the Cumberland, which ship Capt. 
Buchanan had determined to sink with the prow of the Vir¬ 
ginia. On board the Yankee frigate, the crew were watching 
the singular iron roof bearing down upon them, making all 
manner of derisive and contemptuous remarks, many of them 
aloud, and within hearing of those on board the Virginia ; such 
as : “ AY ell, there she comes.” “ AVhat the devil does she look 
like?” “AYhatin h—11 is she after?” “Let’s look at that 
great Secesh curiosity,” etc. These remarks were cut short by 
a discharge from the Virginia’s bow gun, which swept from one 
end of the Cumberland’s deck to the other, killing and wound¬ 
ing numbers of the poor deluded wretches. In a few minutes 
thereafter, the Virginia had struck her on her starboard bow ; 
the crash below the water was distinctly heard, and, in fifteen 


270 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


minutes thereafter, the Yankee vessel, against whom an old 
grudge had long existed for her participation in the burning 
of the navy-yard, sank beneath the water, her guns being 
fought to the last, and her flag flying at her peak. 

Just after the Cumberland sunk, Commander Tucker was 
seen standing down James river under full steam, accompanied 
by the Jamestown and Teazer. Their escape was miraculous, 
as they were under a galling fire of solid shot, shell, grape, and 
canister, a number of which passed through the vessels without 
doing any serious injury, except to the Patrick Henry, through 
whose boiler a shot passed, scalding to death four persons and 
wounding others. 

Having sunk the Cumberland, the Virginia turned her at¬ 
tention to the Congress. She was some time in getting her 
proper position, in consequence of the shoalness of the water. 
To succeed in this object, Captain Buchanan was obliged to 
run the ship a short distance above the batteries on James river 
in order to wind her. During all the time her keel was in the 
mud, and, of course, she moved but slowly. The vessel was 
thus subjected twice to all the heavy guns of the batteries in 
passing up and down the river. 

It appears that while the Virginia was engaged in getting 
her position, it was believed on the Congress that she had 
hauled off. The Yankees left their guns and gave three cheers. 
Their elation was of short duration. A few minutes afterwards 
the Virginia opened upon the frigate, she having run into shoal 
water. The “ Southern bugaboo,” into whom the broadside 
of the Congress had been poured without effect, not even faiz- 
ing her armor, opened upon the Yankee frigate, causing such 
carnage, havoc, and dismay on her decks, that her colors were 
in a few moments hauled down. A white flag was hoisted at 
the gaft and half-mast, and another at the main. Numbers of 
*the crew instantly took to their boats and landed. Our fire 
immediately ceased. The Beaufort was run alongside, with 
instructions from Captain Buchanan to take possession of the 
Congress, secure the officers as prisoners, allow the crew to 
land, and burn the ship. Lieutenant Parker, commanding the 
Beaufort, received the flag of the Congress and her surrender 
from Commander William Smith and Lieutenant Pendergrast, 
with the side-arms of these officers. After having delivered 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


271 


themselves as prisoners of war on board the Beaufort, they 
were allowed, at their own request, to return to the Congress 
to assist in removing the wounded to the Beaufort. They 
never returned, although they had pledged their honor to do 
so, and in witness of that pledge had left their swords with 
Lieut. Alexander, on board the Beaufort. 

The Beaufort had been compelled to leave the Congress 
under a perfidious fire opened from the shore, while the frigate 
had two white flags flying, raised by her own crew. Deter¬ 
mined that the Congress should not again fall into the hands 
of the enemy, Captain Buchanan remarked: “ That ship must 
be burned,’’ when the suggestion was gallantly responded to 
by Lieutenant Minor, who volunteered to take a boat and burn 
her. He had scarcely reached within fifty yards of the Con¬ 
gress, when a deadly fire was opened upon him, wounding him 
severely and several of his men. On witnessing this vile 
treachery, Captain Buchanan instantly recalled the boat, and 
ordered the Congress to be destroyed by hot shot and incendiary 
6hell. The illumination of the scene was splendid ; the explo¬ 
sion of the frigate’s magazine a little past midnight, aroused 
persons asleep in Norfolk, and signalled to them the complete¬ 
ness of our victory. 

In the perfidious fire from the shore, Captain Buchanan had 
been disabled by a severe wound in the thigh from a minie- 
ball, and the command of the ship had been transferred to 
Lieut. Catesby Jones, with orders to fight her as long as the 
men could stand to their guns. At this time the steam-frigate 
Minnesota and Boanoke, and the sailing-frigate St. Lawrence, 
which had come up from Old Point, opened their fire upon the 
Virginia. The Minnesota grounded in the North channel, 
where, unfortunately, the shoalness of the channel prevented 
the near approach of the Virginia. She continued, however, 
to fire upon the Minnesota, until the pilots declared that it wag 
no longer safe to remain in that position, when she returned 
by the South channel (the middle ground being necessarily 
between the Virginia and Minnesota, and the St. Lawrence 
and Boanoke having retreated under the guns of Old Point), 
and again had an opportunity to open upon her enemy. Night 
falling about this time, the Virginia was anchored off Sewell’s 
Point. 





272 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


The next morning (Sunday) the contest occurred between 
the Monitor (the Ericsson battery) and the Virginia. The 
Yankee frigates, the Roanoke and St. Lawrence, had retreated 
to Old Point — u the apothecary shop,” as it was facetiously 
styled by onr men ; and the Monitor had gone up on Saturday 
night to assist the Minnesota, which w T as still aground. The 
daylight revealed lying near the Minnesota the celebrated iron 
battery, a wonderful-looking structure that was justly compared 
to a prodigious u cheese-box on a plank,” said u cheese-box” 
being of a Plutonian blackness. At 8 o’clock the Virginia ran 
down to engage the Monitor. The contest continued for the 
space of two hours, the distance between the two vessels vary¬ 
ing from half a mile to close quarters, in which the two iron 
vessels were almost side to side, belching out their fire, the 
heavy thugs on the iron sides of each being the only effect of 
the terrific cannonade. Again and again the strange-looking 
battery, with its black, revolving cupola, fled before the Vir¬ 
ginia. It was, as one of our officers remarked, “ like fighting 
a ghost.” Now she ran down towards Old Point, now back 
towards Newport News, now approached to fire, and then ran 
away to load. The rapidity of the movements of the Monitor 
gave her the only advantage which she had in the contest. 
The great length and draft of the Virginia rendered it exceed¬ 
ingly difficult to work her. Once she got aground. It was a 
moment of terrible suspense to the noble ship, against which 
the combined batteries of the Minnesota and Monitor were now 
directed. The shot fell like hail, the shells flew like rain-drops, 
and slowly, steadily she returned the fire. There lay the 
Minnesota with two tugs alongside. Here, there, and every¬ 
where, was the black u cheese-box.” The Virginia still fired 
with the same deliberate regularity as before. Presently a 
great white column of smoke shot up above the Minnesota, 
higher and higher, fuller and fuller in its volume, and beyond 
doubt, carried death all along her decks, for the boiler of one 
of the tugs had been exploded by a shot, and that great white 
cloud canopy was the steam thus liberated. 

In fifteen minutes the Virginia had got off and was again in 
motion. The pilots declared that it was impossible to get 
nearer the Minnesota, which was believed to be entirely disa- 
abled. The Virginia had twice silenced the fire of the Moni- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


273 


tor, and had once brushed her, narrowly missing the coveted 
opportunity of sinking her with her prow, and the continuation 
of the contest being declined by the Monitor having run into 
shoal water, the Virginia ceased tiring at noon and proceeded 
to Norfolk. 

She steamed back amid the cheers of victory. In the direc¬ 
tion of Newport News could be seen the spars of the Cumber¬ 
land above the river she had so long insolently barred ; but of 
her consort there was not even a timber-head visible to tell her 
story. This was not all the Virginia had done. The Minne¬ 
sota was disabled and riddled with shot. Within eight and 
forty hours the Virginia had successfully encountered the 
whole naval force of the enemy in the neighborhood of Norfolk, 
amounting to 2,890 men and 230 guns; had sunk the Cumber¬ 
land, probably the most formidable vessel of her class in the 
Federal navy, consigning to a watery grave the larger portion 
of her crew of 360 men; had destroyed the crack sailing-frigate 
Congress, with her enormous armament; and had crippled in 
the action the Minnesota, one of the best steamers of the en¬ 
emy’s navy. Our casualties were two killed and nineteen 
wounded, and the Virginia had come out of the action with the 
loss of her prow, starboard anchor, and all her boats, 'with her 
smoke-stack riddled with balls, and the muzzles of two of her 
guns shot away, but with no serious damage to her wonderful 
armor, that had sustained a cannonade such as never before 
was inflicted upon a single vessel. 

The exploits of the Virginia created immense excitement in 
the North and a marked interest in Europe, as illustrating a 
novel and brilliant experiment in naval architecture. As an 
example of the sharp and practical energy of the Northern 
government, and its readiness to avail itself of all means in the 
prosecution of the war, it may be mentioned that in five days 
after the occurrence of the Confederate victory in Hampton 
Eoads, a bill was introduced into the Senate at Washington, 
appropriating nearly fifteen millions of dollars for the construc¬ 
tion of additional iron-clad vessels. 

In Great Britain and France, and on the Continent gener¬ 
ally, public attention was strained to a pitch of fearful anxiety 
on the subject of changes in naval architecture, and their adap¬ 
tation to the new exigencies that had arisen in warfare on the 


274 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


water. All the European governments that had a strip of sea- 
coast busied themselves to turn to profit the lesson the Virginia 
had given them. Denmark voted a million of rix dollars for 
the construction of iron-plated vessels, while Sweden sent its 
Crown Prince to assist at the trial trip of the French frigate 
La Couronne, the largest iron war-steamer afloat. Italy had 
already some very fine iron vessels-of-war, and her citizens 
were hard at work on others. Austria was officially informed 
of the revolution in warfare at sea on the very day that an 
imperial commission reported her huge land fortresses as defi¬ 
ant of every known means of assault; and the Prussians, people 
and government, regarded the engagement in Hampton Hoads 
as one of “ the most important events of the day.” 

The Confederate States government might have learned some 
instructive lessons from the victory achieved by the Virginia. 
Instead of one such vessel, we might have had ten, had the 
Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, possessed the ability and 
zeal essential to his responsible position. The cost was not a 
matter of the slightest consideration. A vessel built at an ex¬ 
pense of half a million was cheap enough, when in her first 
essay she had destroyed thrice her'value of the enemy’s prop¬ 
erty. The State of North Carolina and the Confederacy had 
spent at least a million of dollars already in futile attempts to 
defend the eastern coast of that State. If that sum had been 
expended in building iron-clad vessels suitable to the waters 
on the Carolina coast, all of our disasters in that direction 
might have been prevented, except, perhaps, the one at Hat- 
teras, and our ports on that portion of our coast kept open, at 
least partially, if not entirely. In no possibly better manner 
could ten or twenty millions of dollars have been expended 
than by augmenting the power of our infant navy. 

While the Virginia was achieving her memorable victory in 
Hampton Hoads, a battle had commenced in the extreme 
northwest portion of the State of Arkansas, which had but one 
parallel as to its duration, and probably few as to its desperate 
character, since the opening of the war. 

It will be recollected that, in a previous chapter, we left 
Gen. Price about the close of the year 1861 occupying Spring- 
field, Missouri, for the purpose of being within reach of sup¬ 
plies, and protecting that portion of the State from domestic 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


275 


depredations and Federal invasion. About the latter part of 
January, it became evident that the enemy were concentrating 
in force at Kolia, and shortly thereafter they occupied Leba¬ 
non. Believing that this movement could be for no other pur¬ 
pose than to attack him, and knowing that his command was 
inadequate for such successful resistance as the interests of the 
army and the cause demanded, General Price appealed to the 
commanders of the Confederate troops in Arkansas to come to 
his assistance. He held his position to the very last moment. 
On the 12th of February, his pickets were driven in, and re¬ 
ported the enemy advancing upon him in force. Gen. Price 
commenced retreating at once. He reached Cassville with loss 
unworthy of mention in any respect. Here the enemy in his 
rear commenced a series of attacks, running through four days. 
Ketreating and fighting all the way to the Cross Hollows, in 
Arkansas, the command of Gen. Price, under the most ex¬ 
hausting fatigue, all that time, with but little rest for either 
man or horse, and no sleep, sustained themselves, and came 
through, repulsing the enemy upon every occasion, with great 
determination and gallantry. 

Gen. Yan Dorn had recently been appointed to the command 
of the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi district. A 
happy accord existed between him and Gen. Price, and a pri¬ 
vate correspondence that had ensued between these two mili¬ 
tary chieftains, on the occasion of Gen. Yan Dorn’s appoint¬ 
ment by President Davis to take command in Arkansas and 
Missouri, not only showed a spirit of mutual appreciation and 
compliment highly honorable to both, but developed a singu¬ 
lar similarity of views (considering that the letter of each was 
written without knowledge of that of the other) with reference 
to the conduct of the war. 

Learning that Gen. Price had rapidly fallen back from 
Springfield before a superior force of the enemy, and was en¬ 
deavoring to form a junction with the division of Gen. Mc¬ 
Culloch at Boston Mountain, Gen. Yan Dorn, who was then 
at Pocahontas, Arkansas, resolved to go in person to take com¬ 
mand of the combined forces of Price and McCulloch. He- 
reached their head-quarters on the 3d of March. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


t 


276 


THE BATTLE OF ELK HORN. 

The enemy, under the command of Gens. Curtis and Sigel, 
had halted on Sugar Creek, fifty-five miles distant, where, with 
a force variously estimated at from seventeen to twenty-four 
thousand, he was awaiting still further reinforcements before 
he would advance. Gen. Yan Dorn resolved to make the at¬ 
tack at once. He sent for Gen. Albert Pike to join him with 
his command of Indian warriors, and, on the morning of the 
4th of March, moved with the divisions of Price and McCul¬ 
loch, by way of Fayetteville and Bentonville, to attack the en¬ 
emy’s camp on Sugar Creek. The whole force under his com¬ 
mand was about sixteen thousand men. 

At Bentonville, General Sigel’s division, seven thousand 
strong, narrowly escaped a surprise and fell back, our advance 
skirmishing with the rear-guard to Sugar Creek, about seven 
miles beyond. 

On the morning of the 7th of March, Gen. Yan Dorn made 
disposition for attack. Before eleven o’clock, the action had 
become general. The attack was made from the north and 
west, the enemy being completely surrounded. About two 
o’clock, Gen. Yan Dorn sent a dispatch to Gen. McCulloch, 
who was attacking the enemy’s left, proposing to him to hold 
his position, while Price’s left advance might be thrown for¬ 
ward over the whole line, and easily end the battle. Before 
the dispatch was penned, Gen. McCulloch had fallen, and the 
victorious advance of his division upon the strong position of 
the enemy’s front was checked by the fall of himself and Gen. 
McIntosh, also, in the heat of the battle and in the full tide of 
success. It appears that two musket-balls, by killing the gal¬ 
lant McCulloch and McIntosh, had prevented us from gaining 
a great victory. Notwithstanding the confusion that succeeded 
this untimely occurrence, Gen. Yan Dorn pressed forward with 
the attack, sustained by the resistless charges of the Missouri 
division. At nightfall, the enemy had been driven back from 
the field of battle, and the Confederates held his intrenchments 
and the greater part of his commissary stores, on which our 
half-famished men fed. Our troops slept upon their arms 
nearly a mile beyond the point where the enemy had made his 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


277 


last stand, and Gen. Yan Dorn’s head-quarters for the night 
■were at the Elk Horn tavern—from which locality the battle¬ 
field derived its name. We had taken during the day seven 
cannon and about two hundred prisoners. 

On the morning of the 8th, the enemy, having taken a 
strong position during the night, reopened the fight. The 
action soon became general, and continued until about half¬ 
past nine o’clock, by which time Gen. Yan Dorn had com¬ 
pleted his arrangements to withdraw his forces. Finding that 
his right wing was much disorganized, and that the batteries 
were, one after another, retiring from the field, with every shot 
expended, Gen. Yan Dorn had determined to withdraw his 
forces in the direction of their supplies. This was accomplish¬ 
ed w T ith almost perfect success. The ambulances, crowded 
w r ith the wounded, were sent in advance; a portion of McCul¬ 
loch’s division was placed in position to follow, while Gen. Yan 
Dorn disposed of his remaining force as best to deceive the 
enemy as to his intention, and to hold him in check while exe¬ 
cuting it. An attempt was made by the enemy to follow the 
retreating column. It was effectually checked, however, and, 
about 2 p. m., the Confederates encamped about six miles from 
the field of battle, all of the artillery and baggage joining the 
army in safety. They brought away from the field of battle 
300 prisoners, four cannon, and three baggage wagon&. 

Our loss in killed and wounded was stated by Gen. Yan 
Dorn to be about six hundred, as nearly as could be ascertain¬ 
ed, while that of the enemy was conjectured to be more than 
seven hundred killed and at least an equal number wounded. 
Gen. Curtis, in his official report, gives no statement of his loss, 
but simply remarks that it was heavy. The entire engagement 
had extended over the space of three days, the 6tli, 7th, and 
8th of March. The gallantry of our soldiers had been unrival¬ 
led. More than half of our troops were raw levies, armed with 
shot-guns and country rifles. The enemy were armed with 
superior guns of the latest patents, such as revolving rifles, 
sabre bayonets, rifled cannon, mounted howitzers, &c. Our 
army had forced them by inches from one position to another, 
and, although compelled to fall back at last, were able to make 
their determination good never to permit the enemy to advance 
South. 


278 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


The Indian regiments, under Gen. Pike, had not come up in 
time to take any important part in the battle. Some of the 
red-men behaved well, and a portion of them assisted in taking 
a battery; but they were difficult to manage in the deafening 
roar of artillery, to which they were unaccustomed, and were 
naturally amazed at the sight of guns that ran on wheels. 
They knew what to do with the rifle; they were accustomed 
to sounds of battle as loud as their own war-whoop; and the 
amazement of these simple children of the forest may be imag¬ 
ined at the sight of such roaring, deafening, crashing monsters 
as twelve-pounders running around on wheels. Gen. Yan 
Dorn, in his official report of the battle, does not mention that 
any assistance was derived from the Indians—an ally that had, 
perhaps, cost us much more trouble, expense, and annoyance, 
than their services in modern warfare could, under any circum¬ 
stances, be worth. 

In the action, the Missouri troops, from the noble veteran, 
who had led them so long, down to the meanest private, be¬ 
haved with a courage, the fire and devotion of which never, 
for a moment, slackened. The personal testimony of Gen. Yan 
Dorn to their noble conduct, was a just and magnanimous trib¬ 
ute. He wrote to the government at Richmond: “ During the 
whole of this engagement, I was with the Missourians under 
Price, and I have never seen better fighters than these Mis¬ 
souri troops, or more gallant leaders than Gen. Price and his 
officers. From the first to the last shot, they continually 
rushed on, and never yielded an inch they had won; and when 
at last they received orders to fall back, they retired steadily 
and with cheers. Gen. Price received a severe wound in the 
action, but would neither retire from the field nor cease to ex¬ 
pose his life to danger.” 

Nor is this all the testimony to the heroism of Gen. Price on 
the famous battle-fields of Elk Horn. Some incidents are re¬ 
lated to us by an officer of his conduct in the retreat, that show 
aspects of heroism more engaging than even those of reckless 
bravery. In the progress of the retreat, writes an officer, 
every few hundred yards we would overtake some wounded * 
soldier. As soon as he would see the old general, he would 
cry out, “ General, I am wounded!” Instantly some vehicle 
was ordered to stop, and the poor soldier’s wants cared for 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


279 


Again and again it occurred, until onr conveyances were 
covered with the wounded. Another one cried out, 4 General, I 
am wounded!’ The general’s head dropped upon his breast, 
and his eyes, bedimmed with tears, were thrown up, and he 
looked in front, but could seen no place to put his poor soldier. 
He discovered something on wheels in front, and commanded: 

4 Halt! and put this wounded soldier up; by G—d, I will save 
my wounded, if I lose the whole army!’ This explains why 
the old man’s poor soldiers love him so well.” 

Although, in the battle of Elk Horn, our forces had been 
compelled to retire, and the affair was proclaimed in all parts 
of the North as a splendid victory of their arms, there is no 
doubt, in the light of history, that the substantial fruits of vic¬ 
tory were with the Confederates. The enemy had set out on a 
march of invasion, with the avowed determination to subju¬ 
gate Arkansas, and capture Eort Smith. But after the shock 
of the encounter at Elk Horn, he was forced to fall back into 
Missouri, leaving several hundred prisoners in our hands, and 
more than two thousand killed and wounded on the field. The 
total abandonment of their enterprise of subjugation in Ar¬ 
kansas is the most conclusive evidence in the world, that the 
Federals were worsted by Gen. Yan Dorn, and that this brave 
and honorable commander had achieved for his country no in¬ 
considerable success. 

The fall of Gen. Ben McCulloch was esteemed as a national 
calamity, and, in his official report of the battle, Gen. Yan 
Dorn declared that no success could repair the loss of the gal¬ 
lant dead, who had fallen on the well-fought field. Gen. Mc¬ 
Culloch’s name was already historical at the time of the break¬ 
ing out of the revolution. Twenty-six years ago he served in 
the battle of San Jacinto, afterwards passed his time on the 
Texan frontier, in a succession of hardships and dangers such 
as few men have seen, and subsequently, in the Mexican war 
on the bloody field of Buena Yista, received the public and offi¬ 
cial thanks of Gen. Taylor for his heroic conduct and services. 

McCulloch, as a soldier, was remarkable for his singular ca¬ 
pacities for partisan warfare, and, in connection with Walker, 
Hays, and Chevallie, had originated and rendered renowned 
the name of 44 Texas Banger.” These daring adventurers did 
much in achieving the independence of the Texan republic, 


280 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


and in defending its borders from the ruthless and enterprising 
Camanche. In the war of the United States with Mexico, they 
rendered invaluable service as daring scouts, and inaugurated 
the best and most effective cavalry service that has ever been 
known in the world. 

The moment Lincoln’s election became known, McCulloch 
identified himself as an unconditional secessionist, and repaired 
to Texas to take part in any movement that might grow out of 
the presence of over 3000 United States troops in that State. 
He was unanimously selected by the Committee of Public 
Safety to raise the men necessary to compel the surrender of 
San Antonio, with its arsenal and the neighboring forts, four 
or five in number. Within four days, he had travelled one 
hundred and fifty miles, and stood before San Antonio with 
eight hundred armed men, his old comrades and peighbors. 
His mission succeeded. Texas looked to him with confidence 
as one of her strong pillars in case of war. She sent him abroad 
to procure arms; but, before he had fully succeeded, President 
Davis appointed him brigadier-general, and assigned him to 
the command of the Indian Territory. 

He was killed in the brush on a slight elevation by one of 
the sharp-shooters of the enemy. He was not in uniform, but 
his dress attracted attention. He wore a dress of black velvet, 
patent-leather high-top boots, and he had on a light-colored, 
broad-brimmed Texan hat. The soldier who killed him, a 
private in an Illinois regiment, went up and robbed his body 
of a gold watch. 

Gen. McIntosh, who had been very much distinguished all 
through the operations in Arkansas, had fallen on the battle¬ 
field, about the same time that McCulloch had been killed. 
During the advance from Boston Mountain, he had been placed 
in command of the cavalry brigade, and in charge of the 
pickets. He was alert, daring, and devoted to his duty. His 
kindness of disposition, with his reckless bravery, had attached 
the troops strongly to him, so that, after McCulloch fell, had 
he remained to lead them, all would have been well with the 
right wing; but, after leading a brilliant charge of cavalry, „ 
and carrying the enemy’s battery, he rushed into the thickest 
of the fight again at the head of his old regiment, and was shot 
through the heart. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


281 


A noble boy from Missouri, Churchill Clarke, commanded a 
battery of artillery, and, during the fierce artillery action of the 
7th and 8th, was conspicuous for the daring and skill which he 
exhibited. He fell at the very close of the action. 

While there was, in Richmond, great anxiety to construe 
aright the imperfect and uncertain intelligence which had ar¬ 
rived there, by devious ways, from Arkansas, news reached 
the Southern capital of a brilliant and undoubted victory still 
further to the West, in the distant territory of Hew Mexico. 
This victory had been achieved weeks before the slow intelli¬ 
gence of it reached Richmond. Although it had taken place 
on a remote theatre, and was but little connected with the 
general fortunes of the war, the victory of Yalverde had a 
good effect upon the spirits of the Southern people, which had 
been so long depressed and darkened by a baleful train of 
disasters. 


THE BATTLE OF VALVERDE. 

The Confederates marched from Mesilla, in Arizona, upon 
Fort Craig, about 175 miles distant, and there fought the battle 
and won the victory of Yalverde, on the 21st of March. Gen. 
Sibley, with his command, numbering, rank and file, two 
thousand three hundred men, left Fort Thorn, eighty miles 
below Fort Craig, about the 12th of February. On arriving in 
the vicinity of Fort Craig, he learned from some prisoners, 
captured near the post, that Gen. Canby was in command of 
the Federal forces in the fort; that he had twelve hundred 
regular troops, two hundred American volunteers, and five 
thousand Mexicans, making his entire force near six thousand 
four hundred men. notwithstanding this superior force, he 
boldly advanced, and, on the 19th, crossed the river near Fort 
Craig, and, making a detour of some miles, arrived on the 
morning of the 21st March at Yalverde, on the east bank of 
the Rio Grande, three miles above the fort, where a large body 
of the enemy were stationed to receive him. It seems that all 
the enemy’s forces, with the exception of their artillery and re¬ 
serve, were upon the same side of the river to which our troops 
were advancing. A portion of Col. Baylor’s regiment, under 
command of Major Pyon, numbering 250 men, were the first 


282 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


to engage the enemy. Alone and unsupported for one hour, 
they held their position amid a hail of grape, canister, and 
round-shot. At that time they were reinforced, and the battle 
became general. The enemy then made an attack upon our 
right wing, and were repulsed. A general movement was then 
made upon our line with more success, a portion of our left 
wing being compelled to fall back and take a new position. 
This was about 2 o’clock. The enemy now supposed they had 
gained the day, and ordered their battery across the river, 
which was done, and the battery planted upon the bank. As 
soon as the battery opened General Sibley knew it had crossed, 
and immediately ordered a general charge, which was per¬ 
formed only as Texans can do it. Starting at a distance of 
eight hundred yards, with their Camanche war-whoop, they re¬ 
served their fire until within thirty yards of the battery, when 
they poured a deadly fire, with double-barrelled shot-guns and 
pistols, immediately into the horror-stricken ranks of their foes. 
They sprung into the river, and in crossing, numbers were 
killed. Captain Teel’s battery now coming up, closed this 
sanguinary contest with shell and grape, as they fled down the 
opposite side of the river to the fort. The battle lasted nine 
hours. It afforded one of the most remarkable instances of 
valor in the war—the taking of a field-battery with shot-guns 
and pistols. Our loss was thirty-eight killed, and one hundred 
and twenty wounded; that of the enemy, as given by them¬ 
selves, was three hundred killed, four or five hundred wounded, 
and two thousand missing. The enemy suffered the most while 
retreating across the river, where the slaughter was for some 
moments terrible. 

After the victory of Valverde, the small force of Texans not 
being in any condition to assault Fort Craig, pressed on to Al¬ 
buquerque, about ninety miles north of the battle-field. This 
city, the second in size and importance in the territory, having 
a population of seven or eight thousand, the Federals had 
evacuated. The victorious Confederates still pressed towards 
Santa Fe, the capital city of the great central plateau of inte¬ 
rior America, which the Federals had also evacuated, and 
fallen back on Fort Union, about sixty miles northeast of Santa 
Fe, and one of the strongest fortifications in America. 

Thus the Texans had marched about three hundred miles 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


2S3 


from Mesilla, defeated the Federals and destroyed their army 
in a pitched battle, ejected them from their two chief cities, 
and driven them out of the territory to their outpost on its 
eastern limits. 

The result of the battle of Yalverde was encouraging, and 
the prospect was indulged that New Mexico was already con¬ 
quered, and that the Confederate States held the Southern 
overland route to California. 

Referring to the progress of the campaign in Yirginia, we 
shall find its plans and locality widely changed, the line of the 
Potomac abandoned, and the long and persistent struggle of 
the Federals for the possession of Richmond transferred to a 
new hut not unexpected theatre of operations. 

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had determined to change his line 
on the Potomac, as the idea of all offensive operations on it 
had been abandoned, and it had become necessary, in his opin¬ 
ion, that the main body of the Confederate forces in Yirginia 
should be in supporting distance and position with the army of 
the Peninsula; and in the event of either being driven back, 
that they might combine for final resistance before Richmond. 

The discretion of falling back from the old line of the Poto¬ 
mac was confided by President Davis entirely to the discretion 
of Gen. Johnston, who enjoyed a rare exemption from official 
pragmatism at Richmond, and was in many things very much 
at liberty to pursue the counsels of his own military wisdom. 

For the space of three weeks before the army left its intrench- 
ments at Manassas, preparations were being made for falling 
back to the line of the Rappahannock, by the quiet and gradual 
removal of the vast accumulations of army stores; and with 
such consummate address was this managed, that our own 
troops had no idea of what was intended until the march was 
taken up. The first intimation the enemy had of the evacua¬ 
tion of Manassas was the smoke of the soldiers’ huts that had 
been fired by our army. 

That the strategic plans of the enemy were completely foiled 
by the movement of Gen. Johnston, was quite evident in the 
tone of disappointment and vexation in which the Northern 
newspapers referred to the evacuation of Manassas, which, 
unless there had been some disconcert of their own strategy by 
such an event, they would have been likely to regard as a con- 

19 


284 


TIIE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


siderable advantage on their side in letting them further into 
the territory of Virginia. 

THE BATTLE OF KERNSTOWN. 

While our forces deserted the old line of the Potomac, it was 
determined not to leave the Valley of Virginia undefended, and 
the command of Glen. Jackson was left in the neighborhood of 
Winchester, to operate to the best advantage. 

Near the town of Winchester occurred, on the 23d of March, 
what was known as the battle of Kernstown. The Federals 
were attacked by onr forces under Gen. Jackson, the engage¬ 
ment having been brought on by the gallant Col. Ashby, who 
had been fighting the enemy wherever he had shown himself in 
the Valley. The Confederate forces amounted to six thousand 
men, with Capt. McLaughlin’s battery of artillery and Colonel 
Ashby’s cavalry. All the troops engaged were from Virginia, 
except a few companies from Maryland. It was thought that 
there would be but a very small force at the point of attack, 
but the enemy proved to be nearly eighteen thousand strong, 
with a considerable number of field-pieces. They occupied a 
rising ground, and a very advantageous position. 

Gen. Banks had concluded that there was no enemy in front 
except Ashby’s force of cavalry ; that Gen. Jackson would not 
venture to separate himself so far from the main body of the 
Confederate army as to offer him battle, and under these im¬ 
pressions he had left for Washington. On Sunday morning, 
Gen. Shields, who had been left in command of the Federals, 
.satisfied that a considerable force was before him, concentrated 
his whole force, and prepared to give battle. The action com¬ 
menced about four o’clock in the evening, and terminated when 
night closed upon the scene of conflict. Our men fought with 
desperation until dark, when the firing on both sides ceased. 
During the night, Gen. Jackson decided to fall back to Cedar 
creek, and prepare there to make successful opposition with 
his small force, should the enemy advance. The enemy was 
left in possession of the field of battle, two guns and four 
caissons, and about three hundred prisoners. Our loss was 
about one hundred killed, and probably twice that number 
'wounded. The loss of the enemy was certainly more than 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


285 


double. At one period of tlie fight our men had got posses¬ 
sion of a stone wall, which formed the boundary of two fields, 
and dropping on their knees, had fired deadly volleys into the 
advancing lines of the enemy. The Confederates carried off 
the greater portion of the wounded up the Yalley. Their re¬ 
treat was conducted in perfect order; and even Gen. Shields, 
in his accounts of the affair, which were very much exagger¬ 
ated, of course, for the purposes of popular sensation in the 
North, testified of the Confederates, that “such was their gal¬ 
lantry and high state of discipline, that at no time during the 
battle or pursuit did they give way to panic.” 

The enemy had but little reason to boast of the battle of 
Kernstown. In fact, the affair was without general significa¬ 
tion. It was an attack by the Confederates, undertaken on 
false information, gallantly executed, and, although unsuccess¬ 
ful, was not disastrous. The Northern troops had made no ad¬ 
vance in the Yalley ; from the Manassas line they had actually 
retired ; nor had they any considerable body of troops this side 
of Centreville. Whether they would ever attempt to execute 
their original plan, of a march through Piedmont to Richmond, 
was now more than problematical. 

The greater portion of our dead left on the field of battle 
were buried under the direction of the mayor of Winchester. 
Some fifty citizens collected the dead, dug a great pit on the 
battle-field, and gently laid the poor fellows in their last rest¬ 
ing-place. It was a sad sight, and sadder still to see women 
looking carefully at every corpse to try to identify the bodies 
of their friends. Scarcely a family in the county but had a 
relative there. Rut their suffering did not mollify the noble 
Southern women of Winchester. Every feeling, testified a 
Federal officer who witnessed the sad and harrowing scenes of 
the battle-field, seemed to have been extinguished in their in¬ 
tense hatred of “ the Yankees.” “ They would say, ‘ You may 
bring the whole force of the North here, but you can never 
conquer us,—we will shed our last drop of blood,’ ” &c. 

Col. Ashby covered the retreat of the army, and by his tire¬ 
less energy, made himself, as on many other occasions, the 
terror of the Yankees. The daring feats and heroic exploits of 
this brave officer were universal themes of admiration in the 
South, and were rehearsed by the people of the Yalley, who 


286 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


idolized him, with infinite gratification and delight. A few 
months before, when Winchester had been evacuated, under 
orders from the War Department, he had been unwilling to 
leave the town, and had lingered behind, watching the ap¬ 
proach of the haughty and unprincipled foe into this ancient 
town of the Valley. He waited until the Federal columns had 
filled the streets, and, within two hundred yards of them, 
cheered for the Southern Confederacy, and then dashed off at 
full speed for the Valley turnpike. He reached it only to find 
his way intercepted by two of the enemy’s pickets. Nothing 
daunted, he drew his pistol and shot down one of the pickets, 
and, seizing the other, dragged him off a prisoner, and brought 
him safely to the Confederate lines. It was adventures like 
these, as well as extraordinary gallantry in the field, that made 
the name of the brave Virginia cavalier conspicuous throughout 
the South, and a tower of strength with those for whose homes 
and firesides he had been struggling. 

The personal appearance of Col. Ashby was not striking. 
He was of small stature. He wore a long black beard, and 
had dark, glittering eyes. It was not generally known that 
the man who performed such deeds of desperate valor and en¬ 
terprise, and who was generally pictured to the imagination as 
a fierce, stalwart, and relentless adventurer, was as remarkable 
for his piety and devoutness as for his military achievements. 
His manners were a combination, not unusual in the truly re¬ 
fined spirit, of gentleness with the most enthusiastic courage. 
It was said of him, that when he gave his most daring com¬ 
mands, he would gently draw his sabre, wave it around his 
head, and then his clear, sounding voice would ring out the 
simple but thrilling words, “ Follow me.” In such a spirit we 
recognize the fine mixture of elements that the world calls 
heroism. 

The Northern forces pursued neither the retreat of Johnston 
from Manassas, nor that of Jackson from Winchester. On the 
contrary, they withdrew the forces first advanced, and blocked 
the road between Strasburg and Winchester. It was known, 
however, about this time, that the camps at Washington had 
been rapidly diminished, «and that McClellan had totally disap¬ 
peared from the scene. At the same time an unusual confi¬ 
dence was expressed in the Northern journals that Richmond 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


287 


would now fall almost immediately into the hands of their 
generals. Then followed the daily announcements of fleets of 
transports arriving in Hampton Roads, and the vast extension 
of the long line of tents at Newport News. These were evi¬ 
dent indications of the intention of the enemy to abandon for 
the present other projects for the capture of Richmond, so as to 
make his great effort on the Peninsula formed by the York and 
James rivers. 

General Magruder, the hero of Bethel, and a commander 
who was capable of much greater achievements, was left to con¬ 
front the growing forces on the Peninsula, which daily men¬ 
aced him, with an army of seventy-five hundred men, while the 
great bulk of the Confederate forces were still in motion in the 
neighborhood of the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, and he 
had no assurance of reinforcements. The force of the enemy 
was ten times his own ; they had commenced a daily cannon¬ 
ading upon his lines; and a council of general officers was con¬ 
vened, to consult whether the little army of seven thousand 
five hundred men should maintain its position in the face of ten¬ 
fold odds, or retire before the enemy. The opinion of the 
council was unanimous for the latter alternative, with the ex¬ 
ception of one officer, who declared that every man should die 
in the intrenchments before the little army should fall back. 
“Pty G—, it shall be so!” was the sudden exclamation of Gen. 
Magruder, in sympathy with the gallant suggestion. The res¬ 
olution demonstrated a remarkable heroism and spirit. Our 
little force was adroitly extended. over a distance of several 
miles, reaching from Mulberry Island to Gloucester Point, a 
regiment being posted here and there, in every gap plainly 
open to observation, and on other portions of the line the men 
being posted at long intervals, to give the appearance of num¬ 
bers to the enemy. Had the weakness of Gen. Magruder at 
this time been known to the enemy, he might have suffered the 
consequences of his devoted and self-sacrificing courage; but 
as it was, he held his lines on the Peninsula until they were 
reinforced by the most considerable portion of Gen. Johnston’s 
forces, and made the situation of a contest upon which the at¬ 
tention of the public was unanimously fixed as the most de¬ 
cisive of the war. 

It is not our purpose at this time to follow up the develop- 


i 


288 THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR 

ments of the situation on the Peninsula. "We must, for the 
present, leave affairs there in the crisis to which we have 
brought them, while we refer to a serious recurrence of dis¬ 
asters about this time on our sea-coast and rivers, where again 
the lesson was repeated to us of the superiority of the enemy 
on the water, not by any mysterious virtue of gunboats, but 
solely on account, as we shall show, of inefficiency and improv¬ 
idence in our government. 

On the 4th of March, the town of Newbern, in North Caro¬ 
lina, was taken by the Federals, under command of General 
Burnside, after a feeble resistance. The day before, the Fed¬ 
erals had landed about ten thousand troops fifteen miles below 
Newbern, and at the same time had ascended the river with a 
fieet of gunboats, which, as they advanced, shelled the woods 
in every direction. The next morning the fighting was com¬ 
menced at early dawn, and continued until half-past ten o clock, 
when our forces, being almost completely surrounded, were 
compelled to retreat. All the forts on the river were aban¬ 
doned. Fort Thompson was the most formidable of these. It 
was four miles from Newbern, and mounted thirteen heavy 
guns, two of them rifled 32-pound^rs. The guns at Fort Ellis, 
three miles from Newbern, were dismounted and thrown down 
the embankment. Fort Lane, mounting eight guns, two miles 
from Newbern, was blown up. In the first attack upon our 
lines, at 7 o’clock, the enemy had been repulsed three times 
successively by our infantry, with the assistance of Fort Thomp¬ 
son ; but having flanked our forces on the right, which caused 
a panic among the militia, he had changed the fortunes of 
the day. The railroad bridge across Neuse river was not 
burnt until after all our troops had crossed, except those whose 
escape had been effectually cut off by the enemy. The Fed¬ 
erals achieved a complete victory after a contest of very short 
duration, having taken about five hundred prisoners, over fifty 
pieces of cannon, and large quantities of arms and ammunition. 

The easy defeat of the Confederate forces at Newbern, the 
surrender of our fortifications, on which thousands of dollars 
had recently been expended, and the abandonment not only of 
our heavy guns, but of some of our field-guns also, was a sub¬ 
ject of keen mortification to the South. The fact was known 
that our force at Newbern was very inadequate—not more than 


THE FIR3T YEAR OF THE WAR. 


289 


five thousand—a part of whom were militia, and had been left, 
despite of appeals to the government for reinforcements, to en¬ 
counter whatever force Gen. Burnside should choose to bring 
against them. Gen. Branch, who was in command of the Con¬ 
federate forces, and who displayed courage and judgment, was 
compelled to fight at JSTewbern. To have given it up without 
a struggle, after all that had been done there, would have 
brought him into discredit with the government, the people, 
and the troops. As it was, the enemy had gained an important 
position within easy reach of the Wilmington and Weldon 
road. But few persons remained in the town. Seven trains left 
for Goldsboro’, all crowded to overflowing by fugitive soldiers 
and panic-stricken people. A shell from the enemy’s gunboats 
fell within twenty-five feet of the last train as it moved off. 
Women and children were overtaken by the trains many miles 
from Newbern, some in vehicles of various kinds, and many on 
foot. The panic and disorganization extended for miles, and 
yet there was a nobility in the determination of the population 
of ISTewbern to fly anywhere rather than court security in their 
homes by submission to the enemy. The town of Newbern 
originally contained twelve hundred people; when occupied by 
the enemy, it contained one hundred people, male and female, 
of the old population. 

On the 12th day of April one year ago, the guns and mor¬ 
tars of the South Carolina batteries opened upon the then hos¬ 
tile walls of Fort Sumter. Strangely enough, the first anni¬ 
versary of the event was signalized by the startling and un¬ 
comfortable announcement that Fort Pulaski, the principal 
defence of the city of Savannah, had surrendered to the Yan¬ 
kees, after a brief bombardment. The news was all the more 
unpleasant, from the fact that the day before the public had 
been informed by telegraph that the enemy’s batteries had 
been “ silenced.” It seems that they were not silent until our 
flag was struck. The surrender was unconditional, and the 
garrison, consisting of more than three hundred men, four of 
whom had been wounded and none killed, were made prisoners 
of war. > 

Another Confederate disaster on the coast shortly ensued, in 
the surrender of Fort Macon. This fort, on the Hoxth Carolina 
coast, was surrendered on the 25th of April, after a bombard- 


290 


THE FTRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


ment from the enemy’s land batteries of less than twelve hours. 
It commanded the entrance to Beaufort harbor, and was said 
to be the most formidable fortification on the North Carolina 
coast. 

For these painful and almost humiliating disasters on our 
coast and rivers, a ready but very silly excuse was always at 
hand. A most pernicious and false idea appeared to have 
taken possession of the public mind with reference to the essen¬ 
tial superiority of the enemy on water. A very obvious reflec¬ 
tion of common sense dissipates the idea of any essential advan¬ 
tage which the enemy had over us on the water. The failures 
in our defences had been most unjustly attributed to the bug¬ 
bear of gunboats, when they ought to have been ascribed to no 
more unavoidable causes than our own improvidence and neg¬ 
lect. 

The suggestion of common sense is, that if it was possible 
to make a vessel ball-proof, it was certainly much easier to 
make a fortification ball-proof. The excuse had been persist¬ 
ently made for our lack of naval defences, that it was difficult 
to supply the necessary machinery, and almost impossible, with 
the limited means at our disposal, to construct steam-engines. 
But these excuses about lack of machinery and steam-engines 
did not apply to our land defences. No machinery was neces¬ 
sary ; no engine was necessary; and no consultation of curved 
lines of naval architecture was required to make a land fortifi¬ 
cation ball-proof. The iron plate that was fitted on the side of 
a gunboat had only to be placed on a dead surface, to make 
the land fortification a match in invulnerability to the iron- 
plated man-of-war. This was common sense. Unfortunately, 
however, it was a common sense which the scientists of West 
Point had been unable to appreciate. While the public mind 
had been busy in ascribing so many of our late disasters to 
some essential and mysterious virtue in iron-plated boats, it 
seemed never to have occurred to it that it was much easier to 
construct iron-plated batteries on land than the iron-plated 
sides of a ship, besides giving the structure the power of loco¬ 
motion, and that our defeats on the water, instead of being 
charged to “gunboats,” or to “the dispensations of Provi¬ 
dence,” had been but the natural results of human neglect and 
human stupidity. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


291 


CHAPTEK XII. 


The Campaign in the Mississippi Valley.—Bombardment of Island No. 10.—The 
Scenes, Incidents, and Results.—Fruits of the Northern Victory.—Movements of the 
Federals on the Tennessee River.—The Battle of Shiloh. —A “ Lost Opportunity.” 
—Death of General Albert Sidney Johnston.—Comparison between the Battles of 
Shiloh and Manassas.—The Federal Expeditions into North Alabama.—Withdrawal 
of the Confederate Forces from the Trans-Mississippi District.—General Price and 
his Command.—The Fall of New Orleans.— The Flag Imbroglio.—Major-general 
Butler.—Causes of the Disaster.—Its Results and Consequences.—The Fate of the 
Valley of the Mississippi. 


The last period of our narrative of events in Tennessee, left 
Gen. Johnston making a southward movement towards the left 
bank of the Tennessee river, for the objects of the defence of 
Memphis and the Mississippi river, and indicated the important 
position of Island Xo. 10, forty-five miles below Columbus, as 
still in possession of the Confederates. 

This important position in the Mississippi river was defended 
by General Beauregard with extraordinary vigor and success 
against the fleet of the enemy’s gunboats, under the command 
of Flag-officer Foote. The works were erected with the highest 
engineering skill, were of great strength, and, with their natural 
advantages, were thought to be impregnable. 

The bombardment of Madrid Bend and Island Xo. 10 com¬ 
menced on the 15th of March, and continued constantly night 
and day. On the 17th a general attack, with five gunboats 
and four mortar-boats, was made, which lasted nine hours. 
The attack was unsuccessful. On the first of April, General 
Beauregard telegraphed to the War Department at Bichmond 
that the bombardment had continued for fifteen days, in which 
time the enemy had thrown three thousand shells, expending 
about one hundred thousand pounds of powder, with the result 
on our side of one man killed and none seriously wounded. The 
gratifying statement was also made in General Beauregard’s 
dispatches that our batteries were entirely intact. We had 
disabled one of the enemy’s gunboats and another was reported 
to be sunk, and the results of the bombardment, so far as it had 


292 


THE FIRST YEAR 


OF THE WAR. 


continued, afforded room for congratulation that the fantasy of 
the invincible power of Yankee gunboats would at last be dis¬ 
pelled, and that the miserable history of the surrender of all our 
forts to this power was destined to wind up in a decisive and 
brilliant Confederate triumph on the waters of the Mississippi. 
The daily bulletin from Island No. 10, for many days, repre¬ 
sented that the enemy, after an incessant bombardment of 
many hours, had inflicted no injury. The people of the South 
were constantly assured that the place was impregnable, and 
that the enemy never could pass it. 

The bombardment had been one of unparalleled length in 
the war. Every day the mortars continued to boom, and still 
the cannon of the island replied with dull, sullen roar, wasting 
shot and temper alike. The very birds became accustomed to 
the artificial thunder, and alighted upon the branches of trees 
overhanging the mortars in the sulphurous smoke. The scenes 
of this long bombardment are described as affording some of 
the most magnificent spectacles—the tongues of flame leaping 
from the mouths of the mortars amid a crash like a thousand 
thunders, and then the columns of smoke rolling up in beauti¬ 
ful fleecy spirals, developing into rings of exquisite proportions. 
It is only necessary for one to realize the sublime poetry of 
war, as illustrated in the remarkable scenes at Island No. 10, 
to imagine a dozen of these monsters thundering at once, the 
air filled with smoke clouds, the gunboats belching out destruc¬ 
tion and completely hidden from sight in whirls of smoke, the 
shells screaming through the air with an unearthly sound, and 
the distant guns of the enemy sending their solid shot above 
and around the island, dashing the water up in glistening col¬ 
umns and jets of spray. 

While the people of the South were induced to anticipate a 
decisive and final repulse of the enemy on the waters of the 
Mississippi, the news reached them through Northern channels 
that the capture of Island No. 10 had been effected on the 8th 
of April, and that not only had the position been weakly sur¬ 
rendered, but that we had saved none of our cannon or muni 
tions, had lost our boats, and had left about six hundred pris’ 
oners on the island in the hands of the enemy. 

The evacuation of the island, which was effected in the great¬ 
est precipitation—our sick being abandoned, there being no 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


293 


concert of action whatever between the Confederates upon the 
island and those occupying the shore, the latter fleeing, leaving 
the former to their fate—had taken place hut two days after 
Gen. Beauregard had left command of the post for important 
operations to check the movements of the enemy on the Ten¬ 
nessee river, which were developing a design to cut off his 
communication in west Tennessee with the eastern and southern 
States. Gen. Makall had been appointed to take command of 
the post. He assumed it on the 5th of April, in a flaming or¬ 
der, in which he announced to the soldiers : “ Let me tell you 
who I am. I am a general made by Beauregard—a general 
selected by Gens. Beauregard and Bragg.” In the mean time, 
the enemy was busy, and his operations were suffered to es¬ 
cape the vigilance of the Confederate commander. The Fed¬ 
erate had cut a canal across the peninsula at Hew Madrid, 
through which the steamers and several barges were taken. 
The undertaking was an herculean one. The canal was twelve 
miles long, through heavy timber, which had to be sawed off 
by hand four feet under water. 

One of the enemy’s gunboats had succeeded in passing the 
island in a heavy fog. On the night of the 5th of April, the 
enemy, with a gunboat engaged Rucker’s battery. While at¬ 
tention was engaged with this boat, a second gunboat slipped 
down unperceived, except by the men at one of the batteries, 
who fired two shots at her without effect. The situation was 
now serious ; the enemy had possession of the river below the 
island. On the night of April 6, Gen. Makall moved the in¬ 
fantry and Stewart’s battery to the Tennessee shore, to pro¬ 
tect the landing from anticipated attacks. The artillerists 
remained on the island. The enemy having effected a landing 
above and below the island in large force, its surrender might 
be considered as a military necessity. But there could be no 
excuse for the wretched management and infamous scenes that 
attended the evacuation. All our guns, seventy in number, 
varying in calibre from 32 to 100 pounders, rifled, were aban¬ 
doned, together with our magazines, which were well supplied 
with powder, large quantities of shot, shell, and other muni¬ 
tions of war. The transports and boats were scuttled. Noth- 
ing seems to have been done properly. The guns were spiked 
with rat-tail files, but so imperfectly that several of them 


294 : 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


were rendered serviceable to the enemy in a very short time. 
The floating battery, formerly the Pelican Dock at New Or¬ 
leans, of sixteen heavy guns, after being scuttled, was cut loose. 
At daylight it was found lodged a short distance above Point 
Pleasant, and taken possession of by the enemy. Four steamers 
afloat fell into the hands of the enemy, with all the stores on 
board. 

The unhappy men on the island were abandoned to their 
fate, the Confederates on the mainland having fled with pre¬ 
cipitation. On one of the hospital boats were a hundred poor 
wretches, half dead with disease and neglect. On the shore 
were crowds of our men wandering around among the profu¬ 
sion of ammunition and stores. A few of them effected their 
escape through the most remarkable dangers and adventures. 
Some trusted themselves to hastily constructed rafts, with 
which to float down the Mississippi, hoping to attract the at¬ 
tention and aid of the people living on the shore. Others 
gained the upper banks of the river, where, for several days 
and nights, they wandered, lost in the extensive cane-brakes, 
without food, and in severe toil. Some two or three hundred 
of the stragglers, principally from the forces on the mainland, 
succeeded in making their way to Bell’s Station, on the Ohio 
railroad, and reached Memphis. 

The disaster was considerable enough in the loss of Island 
No. 10; but the circumstances attending it, and the conse¬ 
quences in the loss of men, cannon, ammunition, supplies, and 
every thing appertaining to an army, all of which might pos¬ 
sibly have been avoided, increased the regrets of the South, 
and swelled the triumph of her enemies. Our total loss in 
prisoners, including those taken on the mainland as well as 
those abandoned on the island, was probably not less than two 
thousand. The Federal Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Welles, 
had reason to declare, that “the triumph was not the less 
appreciated, because it was protracted, and Anally bloodless.” 
No single battle-field had yet afforded to the North such visible 
fruits of victory as had been gathered at Island No. 10. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


295 


THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. 

In the mean time, the movements of the enemy on the Ten¬ 
nessee river were preparing the situation for one of the grand¬ 
est battles that had yet been fought in any quarter of the war, 
or had yet illustrated the exasperation and valor of the con¬ 
testants. Gen. Beauregard had determined to foil the apparent 
designs of the enemy to cut off his communication with the 
south and east, by concentrating all his available forces at and 
around Corinth. This town is situated at the junction of the 
Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio railroads, 
about ninety-two miles east of Memphis. 

Gen. Johnston had taken up a line of march from Murfrees¬ 
boro, to form a junction of his forces with those of General 
Beauregard. By the 1st of April, these united forces were 
concentrated along the Mobile and Ohio railroad from Bethel 
to Corinth, and on the Memphis and Charleston railroad from 
Corinth to Iuka. The army of the Mississippi had received 
other important accessions. It was increased by several regi¬ 
ments from Louisiana, two divisions of Gen. Polk’s command 
from Columbus, and a fine corps of troops from Mobile and 
Pensacola. In numbers, in discipline, in the galaxy of the 
distinguished names of its commanders, and in every article 
of merit and display, the Confederate army in the vicinity of 
Corinth was one of the most magnificent ever assembled by the 
South on a single battle-field. 

The enemy under Gen. Grant, on the west bank of the Ten¬ 
nessee, had obtained a position at Pittsburg and in the direc¬ 
tion of Savannah. An advance was contemplated by him, as 
soon as he could be reinforced by the army under Gen. Buell, 
then known to be advancing for that purpose by rapid marches 
from Nashville by the way of Columbus. To prevent this 
demonstration, it was determined by Gen. Beauregard to press 
the issue without delay. By a rapid and vigorous attack on 
Gen. Grant, it was expected he would be beaten back into his 
transports and the river, or captured in time to enable the 
Confederates to profit by the victory, and remove to.the rear 
all the stores and munitions that would fall into their hands, 
in such an event, before the arrival of Gen. Buell’s army on 


4 


296 THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

the scene. It was never contemplated, however, to retain the 
position thus gained'and'abandon Corinth, the strategic point 
of the campaign. # 

It appears to have been Gen. Beauregard’s plan to have at¬ 
tacked the enemy in their encampments on Saturday, the 5th. 
He, therefore, began the movement on Thursday, but the roads 
were heavy, and the men could not be got into position before 
Saturday. Had the attack been made on that day, the first 
day’s fighting must have ended the conflict, for the enemy 
could have had no hope of aid from Buell. As it was, one 
day was lost, and the enemy were constantly inspirited by the 
almost momentary expectation of the arrival of Gen. Buell. In 
the mean time, courier after courier was sent by Gen. Grant 
for Buell to hasten on. 

The Confederate forces did not reach the intersection of the 
roads from Pittsburg and Hamburg, in the immediate vicinity 
of the enemy, until late on Saturday afternoon. Their march 
had been tedious and wearisome. The roads were narrow and 
traversed a densely wooded country, and a severe rain-storm 
had rendered them almost impassable, and had drenched our 
troops in bivouac. 

The morning of the 6th of April (Sunday) was to usher in 
the bloody scenes of a memorable battle. One camp of the 
enemy was near Shiloh church—a rude log chapel; and an¬ 
other stretched away in the direction of the road leading from 
Pittsburg Landing on the river to Corinth. The scene of the 
encampment was a very beautiful and magnificent one, there 
being but little undergrowth, and the thin ranks of the tall 
forest-trees affording open views, while the interlacing of their 
topmost boughs made a picturesque and agreeable canopy. In 
a military point of view, the battle-field might be described as 
a broken country, presenting opportunities for a great variety 
of manoeuvres and independent operations by comparatively 
small bodies of men. 

On the Saturday evening preceding the Sunday fight at 
Shiloh, there had been considerable skirmishing on our lines. 
Early Sunday morning, before sunrise, Gen. Hardee, in front 
of the enemy’s camp, made an advance upon it. The enemy 
was taken completely by surprise, not expecting to be attacked, 
under any circumstances, by our inferior force. Many of the 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


29 ? 


men were undressed and in night attire, and the hot breakfasts 
prepared by the messes were left untouched for the entertain¬ 
ment of our men. A line of battle was hastily formed by the 
enemy, and, in the mean time, our forces were advancing in 
every direction. The plan of the battle on our side was to 
form three parallel lines—the front, centre, and rear—each line 
having its centre and two flanks. The rear constituted the re¬ 
serve, and the artillery was distributed between the first and 
second lines. The front was commanded by Gen. Hardee, the 
centre by Gen. Bragg, and the rear by Gen. Polk—Johnston 
and Beauregard being with the latter. 

From daylight until a little after six o’clock, the fighting 
was principally between the pickets and skirmishers, but, at 
the latter hour, a portion of our main body appearing in sight, 
fire opened with artillery, and for an hour or more one heard 
nothing but the incessant uproar of the heavy guns. Our men, 
though many of them were unaccustomed to the iron hail, re¬ 
ceived the onset coolly, awaiting the orders to rise from their 
recumbent position and advance. In due time these came, and 
thenceforward through the day, brave and disciplined as were 
the Federal troops, nothing seemed capable of resisting the 
desperate valor of the Confedrates. The enemy fell like chaff 
before the wind. Broken in ranks, they rallied behind trees 
and in the underbrush, only to be again repulsed and driven 
back. 

The scenery of the battle-field was awfully sublime. Far up 
in the air shells burst into flame like shattered stars, and passed 
away in little clouds of white vapor, while others filled the air 
with a shrill scream, and burst far in the rear. All along the 
line the faint smoke of the musketry rose lightly, while, from 
the mouths of the cannon, sudden gusts of intense white smoke 
burst up all around. Every second ot time had its especial 
tone. Bullets shredded the air, and whistled swiftly by, or 
struck into trees, fences, wagons, or with their peculiar “chuck” 
into men. Every second of time had its especial tone, and the 
forest, among whose branches rose the wreathing smoke, was 
packed with dead. 

The irresistible attack of our troops was compared by Gen. 
Beauregard, in his official report of the battle, to “ an Alpine 
avalanche.” The enemy were driven back by a series of dar- 


298 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


ing, desperate, and successful charges, the various Confederate 
regiments and brigades rolling rapidly forward to the sound of 
enthusiastic cheers. In all of these, both general and field 
officers displayed a bravery that amounted to sheer recklessness, 
frequently leading the men into the very teeth of the opposing 
fire. It was these inspiring examples of personal valor which 
made our troops invincible. 

At half-past two, Gen. Johnston, the commander-in-chief of 
the Confederates, fell. He was leading a charge upon the third 
camp of the enemy. The fatal wound was inflicted by a 
musket-ball on the calf of his right leg, and was considered by 
him as only a flesh wound. Soon after receiving it, he gave 
an order to Governor Harris, who was acting as volunteer aid 
to him, who, on his return to Gen. Johnston, in a different part 
of the field, found him exhausted from loss of blood, and reel¬ 
ing in his saddle. Riding up to him, Governor Harris asked : 
“ Are you hurt ?” To which the now dying hero answered: 
“ Yes, and I fear mortallyand then stretching out both arms 
to his companion, fell from his horse, and soon after expired. 
Ho other wounds were discovered upon his person. 

Prudently the information of Gen. Johnston’s fall was kept 
from the army. But the day was already secured. Amid the 
roar of artillery and the cheers Of the victorious army, the 
commander-in-chief quietly breathed his last. Our forces were 
successfully pushing the enemy back upon the Tennessee river. 
It was after six o’clock in the evening when his last position 
was carried. The remnant of his army had been driven in 
utter disorder to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg, under the 
shelter of the heavy guns of his iron-clad gunboats, and the 
Confederates remained undisputed masters of his well-selected, 
admirably provided cantonments, after over twelve hours of 
obstinate conflict with his forces, who had been beaten from 
them and the contiguous covert, but only by a sustained onset 
of all the men we could bring into action. 

The substantial fruits of our victory were immense. "We 
were in possession of all the enemy’s encampments between 
Owl and Lick rivers, nearly all of his field artillery, about 
thirty flags, colors, and standards, over three thousand pris¬ 
oners, including a division commander (General Prentiss) and 
several brigade commanders, thousands of small-arms, an im 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


299 


mense supply of subsistence, forage, and munitions of war, and 
a large amount of means of transportation. Never, perhaps, 
was an army so well provided as that of the enemy, and never, 
perhaps, was one so completely stripped on a single battle-field. 
On taking possession of the enemy’s encampments, there were 
found therein the complete muster-rolls of the expedition up 
the river. It appeared that we had engaged the divisions of 
Gens. Prentiss, Sherman, Hurlbut, McClernand, and Smith, of 
9,000 men each, or at least 45,000 men. Our entire force in 
the engagement could not have exceeded 38,000 men. The 
flower of the Federal troops were engaged, being principally 
Western men, from the States of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin,, 
and Iowa. There were also quite a number of Missourians 
opposed to us, who are said to have fought with great spirit, 
opposite Gen. Gladden’s brigade, on the extreme right. These 
men were accustomed to lives of hardihood and adventure. 
The captured Federal general, Prentiss, did not hesitate to 
testify to General Beauregard, “ You have whipped our best 
troops to-day.” 

The enemy’s artillery on the field, according to Gen. Pren¬ 
tiss’ statement, numbered in all one hundred and eight pieces, 
or eighteen batteries of six pieces each. Their small-arms 
were of every description: Minie rifles, Enfield rifles, Maynard 
rifles, Colt’s six-shooters, common muskets, &c., all of the best 
quality and workmanship. The Federal equipments left 
nothing to be desired. Their clothing was of the best quality 
and abundant, and the same may be said of their supplies. 
An abundance of excellent coflee was found in their tents— 
beef, pork, butter, cheese, navy biscuit, and sugar. The famous 
expedition to the plains of Manassas was not better fitted out 
or supplied. 

On Sunday night, Gen. Beauregard established his head¬ 
quarters at the little church of Shiloh, and our troops were 
directed to sleep on their arms in the enemy’s encampment. 
The hours, however, that should have been devoted to the 
refreshment of nature were spent by many of the troops in a 
disgraceful hunt after the spoils. The possession of the rich 
camp of the enemy seemed to have demoralized whole regi¬ 
ments. All through the night and early the next morning 
the hunt after the spoils was continued. Cowardly citizens- 

20 


300 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


and rapacious soldiers were engaged alike in the wretched 
work. They might be seen everywhere, plundering the tents 
out of which the enemy had been driven, and loading them 
selves down with the spoils. The omission of discipline, which 
permitted these scenes, is not pardonable even in the license and 
indulgences which generally attend the victory of an army. 
The spoils of a victorious army should be carefully gathered 
up and preserved for the use of the army itself. They are the 
just possession of the conqueror, are frequently of great value, 
and should not be lost or carried off, where they can be of use. 
But, more than this, nothing could be more likely to demoial- 
ize troops than the indiscriminate pillage qf an enemy’s camp. 
It creates disorganization in the army; it so far stands in the 
way of a vigorous pursuit of the enemy; it demoralizes the 
spoiler himself, and lets him down at one step from an honor¬ 
able soldier to a plundering brigand. It is no wonder that the 
troops which confronted the enemy next morning in the vicinity 
of Pittsburg Landing betrayed, however bravely they fought in 
comparison with the enemy, a diminution of spirit and visible 
signs of demoralization. 

Sunday night found both armies in a critical situation. Gen. 
Beauregard hoped, from news received by a special dispatch, 
that delays had been encountered by Gen. Buell in his march 
from Columbia, and that his main force, therefore, could not 
reach the field of battle in time to save Gen. Grant’s shattered 
fugitive forces from capture or destruction on the following 
iday. The situation of Gen. Grant was that of the most ex¬ 
treme anxiety to himself. The enemy had supposed that the 
last act of the tragedy would have been completed on Saturday 
evening. The reserve line of the Pederals was entirely gone. 
Their whole army was crowded into a circuit of half to two- 
thirds of a mile around the landing. They had been falling 
back all day. The next repulse would have put them into the 
river, and there were not transports enough to cross a single 
division before the Confederates would be upon them. As the 
lull in the firing of the Confederates took place, and the angry 
rattle of musketry died upon the ears of the fugitive Federals, 
they supposed that the pursuing army was preparing for the 
grand final rush that was to crown the day’s success. But 
Gen. Beauregard had been,, satisfied to pursue the enemy to the 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


301 


river, and to leave him under the cover of his gunboats, with¬ 
out an attempt to penetrate it. When it was understood that 
pursuit was called off, Gen. Grant could ill conceal his exulta¬ 
tion. His anxiety was suddenly composed, and, in a tone of 
confidence, he exclaimed to the group of officers around him, 
“ to-morrow they will be exhausted, and then we will go at 
them with fresh troops.”* 

He was right. Looking across the Tennessee, he could see 
a body of cavalry awaiting transportation over. They were 
said to be Buell’s advance; yet they had been there an hour 
or two alone. Suddenly there was a rustle among the gazers. 
They saw the gleaming of the gun-barrels, and they caught, 
amid the leaves and undergrowth down the opposite side of the 
river, glimpses of the steady, swinging tramp of trained sol¬ 
diers. A division of Buell’s army was there, and was hailed 
with tremendous cheers by the men on the opposite bank of 
the river. 

The enemy was reinforced on Monday morning by more troops 
than Gen. Beauregard could have counted upon. The divisions 
of Gens. Nelson, McCook, Crittenden, and Thomas, of Buell’s 
army, had crossed the river, some 25,000 strong; also, Gen. L. 
Wallace’s division of Gen. Grant’s army had been moved up 
the river—making at least 33,000 fresh troops. Vigorous 
preparations were made by Gen. Beauregard to resist the as¬ 
sault, which was deemed almost certain on Monday. A hot 
fire of musketry opened about six o’clock in the morning from 
the enemy’s quarter upon his advanced lines, and assured him 
of the junction of his forces. The battle soon raged with fury, 
the enemy being flushed by his reinforcements, and confident 
in his largely superior numbers. 


* The evidence of a "lost opportunity” in the battle of Shiloh abundantly 
appeared in the statements of the Northern commanders. Gen. Prentiss is 
reported to have made the following statement: “ Gen. Beauregard,” he said, 
“ asked me if we had any works at the river, to which I replied, ‘ you must 
consider us poor soldiers, general, if you suppose we would have neglected so 
plain a duty!’ The truth is, however, we had no works at all. Gen. Beaure¬ 
gard stopped the pursuit at a quarter to six; had he used the hour still left 
him, he could have captured the last man on this side of the river, for Buell 
did not cross till Sunday night.” 

According to Buell’s report, our shot were falling among the fugitives 
crouching under the river-bank when our troops were called off. 



THE FIKST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


3G£ 

On the right and centre, the enemy were repulsed in every 
attempt he made with his heavy columns in that quarter of the 
field ; on the left, however, and nearest to the point of arrival 
of his reinforcements, he drove forward line after line of his 
fresh troops, which were met with resolution and courage. 
Again and again our troops were brought to the charge, inva¬ 
riably to win the position at issue, invariably to drive back their 
foe. * But hour by hour, thus opposed to an enemy constantly 
reinforced, the ranks of the Confederates were perceptibly 
thinned under the unceasing withering fire of the enemy. By 
noon, eighteen hours of hard fighting had sensibly exhausted a 
large number; Gen. Beauregard’s last reserves had necessarily 
been disposed of, and the enemy was evidently receiving fresh 
reinforcements after each repulse; accordingly, about 1 p. m., 
he determined to withdraw from so unequal a conflict, securing 
such of the results of the victory of the day before as was then 
practicable. 

The retreat was executed with uncommon steadiness, and 
the enemy made no attempt to follow. Gen, Breckinridge, 
had been posted with his command so as to cover the with¬ 
drawal of the rest of the army. Gen. Beauregard had ap¬ 
proached him and told him, that it might be necessary for him 
to sacrifice himself; for said he, “ This retreat, must not le a 
rout! You must hold the enemy back, if it requires the loss 
of your last man!” “Your orders shall be executed to the 
letter,” said the chivalrous Breckinridge; and gathering his 
command, fatigued and jaded and decimated by the toils and 
terrors of a two days’ battle, he and they prepared to devote 
themselves, if necessary, for the safety of the army. There, 
weary and hungry, they stood guard and vigil. The enemy, 
sorely chastised, did not indeed come as expected; but Breck¬ 
inridge and his heroes deserve none the less praise. 

Never did troops leave a battle-field in better order. Even 
the stragglers fell into the ranks, and marched off with those 
who had stood more steadily by their colors. The fact that the 
enemy attempted no pursuit indicates their condition. They 
had gained nothing; we had lost nothing. The Confederates 
left the field only after eight hours of incessant battle with a 
superior army of fresh troops, whom they had repulsed in every 
attack on their lines,—so repulsed and crippled, indeed, as to 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


303 


leave it unable to take the field for the campaign for which it 
was collected and equipped at such enormous expense, and with 
such profusion of all the appliances of war. The action of 
Monday had not eclipsed the glorious victory of the preceding 
day. Sunday had left the Confederate army masters of the 
battle-field, their adversary beaten, and a signal victory achieved 
after an obstinate conflict of twelve hours. 

The result of the engagement was most honorable to the 
South, and was recognized as one of the most conspicuous 
triumphs to its arms. The exultations, however, of victory in 
the public mind w T ere perceptibly tempered by the sad intelli¬ 
gence of the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. 

The deceased commander had led, perhaps, one of the most 
eventful military lives on this continent. He was graduated at 
the 'West Point Academy in 1820, as lieutenant in the Sixth 
Infantry, and after serving in the Black Hawk war left the 
army, and in 1836 emigrated to Texas, arriving there shortly 
after the battle of San Jacinto. He entered the Texan army 
as a private soldier, and was soon promoted to succeed Gen. 
Felix Houston in the chief command—an event which led to a 
duel between them, in which Johnston was wounded. Having 
held the office of senior brigadier-general until 1838, he was 
appointed Secretary of War, and in 1839 organized an expedi¬ 
tion against the Cherokees, who were totally routed in an en¬ 
gagement on the Heches. In 1840, he retired from office, and 
settled upon a plantation in Brazoria county. He was an ardent 
advocate for the annexation of Texas to the United States. In 
1846, at the request of Gen. Taylor, he took the field against 
Mexico, as commander of the volunteer Texan rifle regiment, 
in which capacity he served six months. Subsequently, he was 
acting inspector-general to Gen. Butler, and for his services at 
the siege of Monterey received the thanks of his commander. 
In October, 1849, he was appointed paymaster by President 
Taylor, with the rank of major, and, upon the passage of the 
act of Congress authorizing the raising of additional regiments 
in the army, he was appointed colonel of the Second Cavalry. 
In the latter part of 1857, he received the command of the 
United States forces sent to coerce the Mormons into obedience 
to the Federal authority, and conducted the expedition, in 
safety to Great Salt Lake City in the opening of the succeeding 


304 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


year. Since then he commanded the military district of Utah. 
He resigned the Federal service as soon as the intelligence of 
the opening of the war reached him, and, travelling from 
California by the overland route, reached Hew Orleans in 
August last. Proceeding to Richmond, he was appointed, on 
his arrival there, general, to take command of the Department 
of the Mississippi. 

It is known that Gen. Johnston was the subject of most un¬ 
just and hasty public censure in connection with his late 
retreat from Bowling Green and fall of Fort Donelson. He is 
said, hut a few days before the battle in which he fell, to 
have expressed the determination to discharge his duties and 
responsibilities to his country, according to the best convictions 
of his mind, and a resolution to redeem his losses at no distant 
day. According to the official report, he fell in the thickest of 
the fight. 

Keen regrets were felt by the friends of Gen. Johnston on 
learning the circumstances of the manner of his death, as these 
circumstances appeared to leave but little doubt that his life 
might have been saved by surgical attention to his wound. 
His only wound was from a musket-ball that severed an incon¬ 
siderable artery in the thigh. He was probably unconscious of 
the wound, and never realized it until, from the loss of blood, 
he fell fainting and dying from his horse. 

Gen. Johnston was in the natural vigor of manhood, about 
sixty years of age. He was about six feet in height, strongly 
and powerfully formed, with a grave, dignified, and command¬ 
ing presence. His features were strongly marked, showing the 
Scottish lineage, and denoted great resolution and composure 
of character. His complexion, naturally fair, was, from ex¬ 
posure, a deep brown. His manner was courteous, but rather 
grave and silent. He had many devoted friends, but they had 
been won and secured rather by the native dignity and nobility 
of his character, than by his power of address. 

Besides the conspicuous loss of the commander-in-chief, 
others had fallen whose high qualities were likely to be missed 
in the momentous campaign impending. Gen. Gladden, of 
South Carolina, had fallen, after having been conspicuous to 
his whole corps and the army for courage and capacity. Dis¬ 
tinguished in Mexico, on the bloody fields of Contreras and 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE. WAR. 


305 


Clnmibusco, he received honorable wounds. Having become 
a citizen of Louisiana, and selected to command a noble bri¬ 
gade, he again accumulated honor upon his native State, illus¬ 
trated its martial fame, served her, no less than Louisiana, with 
his life, and sealed the great cause with his best blood. 

George M. Johnston, Provisional Governor of Kentucky,- 
had gone into the action with the Kentucky troops. Having 
his horse shot under him on Sunday, he entered the ranks of a 
Kentucky company, commanded by Capt. Monroe, son of the 
venerable Judge Monroe. At night, while occupying the same 
tent with the captain, it occurred to him that he had not taken 
the oath which entitled him to be enrolled in that company. 
He, therefore, desired the oath to be administered, which was 
done with due solemnity; “ and now,” said the new recruit, 
“I will take a night’s rest and be ready for a good day’s 
fighting.” Faithfully he kept his pledge, and fell mortally 
wounded in the thickest of the fight. In making official men¬ 
tion of his death, Gen. Beauregard declared that “ not Ken¬ 
tucky alone, but the whole Confederacy had sustained a great 
loss in the death of this brave, upright, and able man.” He 
was one of a family of heroes, the nephew of the dauntless 
chief in the battle of the Thames, and the man who, during a 
long public and private career, had been ever regarded one ot 
the noblest of Kentucky chevaliers, true and worthy governor 
of all that was left of Kentucky. 

N The fearless deportment of the Confederate commanders in 
the action was remarkable, as they repeatedly led their com¬ 
mands personally to the onset upon their powerful adversary. 
Gen. Bragg had two horses shot under him. Gen. Breckin¬ 
ridge was twice struck by spent balls. Major-general Hardee 
had his coat rent by balls and his horse disabled, but escaped 
with a slight wound. Gen. Cheatham received a ball in the 
shoulder, and Gen. Bushrod Johnson one in the side. Gen. 
Bowen was wounded in the, neck. Col. Adams, of the First 
Louisiana regulars, succeeded Gen. Gladden in the command 
of the right wing, and was soon after shot, the ball striking him 
just above the eye and coming out behind the ear. Col. Kitt 
Williams, of Memphis, and Col. Blythe, of Mississippi, formerly 
consul to Havana, were killed. 

The casualties of the battle of Shiloh were terrible. In car 1 


306 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


nage, the engagement might have compared with some of the 
most celebrated in the world. Our loss, in the two days, 
in killed outright, was 1,728; wounded, 8,012; missing, 959— 
making an aggregate of casualties of 10,699. The loss of the 
enemy in killed, wounded, and prisoners, unquestionably could 
not have been less than 15,000. 

The suffering among the large numbers of our wounded was 
extreme. They continued to come in from the field slowly, 
but it was a long and agonizing ride that the poor fellows 
had to endure, over twenty-two or twenty-three miles of the 
roughest and rattiest road in the Southern Confederacy. The 
weather was horrible, and a cold northeast storm pelted merci¬ 
lessly down upon them. As they were carried, groaning, from 
the vehicle to the floor of the hospital, or laid in the depot, it 
was sad to see the suffering depicted upon their pinched and 
pallid features. Some of them had lain on the ground, in the 
mud, for two nights, and were wet to the skin and shivering 
with chills. 

In view of the immense carnage of the battle of Shiloh, it 
was popularly esteemed the great battle of the war, and was 
declared by the Southern newspapers to take preference over 
the celebrated action of Manassas. Indeed, the rank which 
the Manassas battle held in the history of the war, w^as disputed 
by newspaper critics on every occasion when some other action 
presented a larger list of casualties or more prolonged scenes 
of conflict. But these circumstances, by themselves, certainly 
afford no standard for measuring the importance and grandeur 
of battles. It is true that the action of Shiloh was a brilliant 
Confederate success. But in dramatic situation, in complete¬ 
ness of victory, in interesting details, and in the grand histori¬ 
cal tragedy of the enemy’s rout, no battle has yet been fought 
in the war equalffo that of Manassas, and, so far, it must hold 
its place in the history of the first year of the war as its grand 
battle, despite the efforts of interested critics to outrank its 
grandeur by that of other achievements, and to do violence to 
the justice of history. 

There was one very remarkable circumstance in the battle of 
Manassas, which alone must give it an interest distinguished 
from that of any other engagement of the war. It was 
that, in the army wdiich achieved that victory, there was rep- 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 307 

resented, by troops, every State then in the Southern Con¬ 
federacy. 

At Shiloh, the troops engaged were principally Tennessee¬ 
ans, MissiSsippians, Alabamians, Louisianians, Floridians, Tex¬ 
ans, Arkansians, and Kentuckians. There was also a battery 
of Georgians in the field. The behavior of these troops had 
given us additional reason for the pride so justly felt in South¬ 
ern arms and Southern prowess. Each and all of them fought 
so bravely that no distinction can be made between corps from 
different States. Battles are won, by each soldier feeling that 
the day depends upon his own individual efforts, and, on the 
held of Shiloh, this spirit was displayed, unless in rare instances 
of cowardice, or the more numerous exceptions of demoraliza¬ 
tion by the pillage which had unfortunately been permitted of 
the enemy’s camp. 

The misrepresentations of the North, with reference to the 
issue of the war, found a crowning example of falsehood and 
effrontery in the official declaration made at Washington of 
the action of Shiloh as a brilliant and glorious Federal vic¬ 
tory. The Lincoln government had not hesitated to keep up 
the spirits of the people of the North by the most audacious 
and flaming falsehoods, which would have disgraced even the 
war bulletins of the Chinese, and which have always been 
found to be, in nations using this expedient in war, evidences 
not only of imperfect civilization, but of natural cowardice. 
The order of the War Department at Washington, signalizing 
its impostured victory at Shiloh, was as disgusting in profanity 
as it was brazen in falsehood. It declared that at meridian 
of Sunday next after the receipt of this order, at the head of 
every regiment in the armies of the United States, there should 
be offered by its chaplain a prayer, giving “ thanks to the Lord 
of Hosts for the recent manifestation of His power in the over¬ 
throw of the rebels and traitors.” One of the Federal generals 
who was incidentally complimented in this order—H. W. Hal- 
]eck—for his “ success” in the Missouri campaign, had written 
a voluminous letter to the Washington Cabinet recommending 
the policy of representing every battle in the progress of the 
war as a Federal victory. A government, which Mr. Seward 
had declared, in his letter to the British premier on the occa¬ 
sion of his cringing surrender to that power of the Southern 


308 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


commissioners, represented “ a civilized and humane nation, a 
Christian people,” had been persuaded to stoop to a policy which 
even the spirit and honor of brigands might have scorned, and 
which is never recognized hut as a weapon of the\ilest and 
most cowardly of humanity. 

Gen. Beauregard retired to Corinth, in pursuance of his 
original design to make that the strategic point of his cam¬ 
paign. The Federals had sent several expeditions into North 
Alabama, and had succeeded in occupying Huntsville and De¬ 
catur ; but the design of these expeditions did not appear to 
extend further than an attempt to cripple our resources by cut¬ 
ting off the Memphis and Charleston railroad, which runs 
through these towns. 

In the mean time, it was decided by the government at Rich¬ 
mond to remove our forces from the Trans-Mississippi district, 
and to unite the armies of Van Dorn and Price with such force 
as Gen. Beauregard already had at Corinth. The order for 
leaving the limits of their States was responded to by the Mis¬ 
souri and Arkansas troops with ready and patriotic spirit. 
These brave men gave an example of gallantry and devotion, 
in leaving their homes and soil in the possession of the enemy, 
to fight for other parts of the Confederacy, which was made 
especially conspicuous from the contrast afforded by the troops 
of some other States which had made unusually large preten¬ 
sions to patriotism and gallantry, regiments of which had 
openly mutinied at being ordered beyond the limits of their 
State, or had marched off with evident discontent, although 
no enemy held their territory, or was left in possession of their 
homes and the treasures they contained. 

The noble “ State Guard” of Missouri had a better apprecia¬ 
tion of the duties of patriotism than many of their fellow- 
citizens of the Confederacy, whose contracted and boastful 
spirit had made them louder in professions of chivalry and de¬ 
votion. They followed their beloved commander without a 
murmur across the waters of the Mississippi, turning their 
backs upon their homes, for which they had fought with a 
gallantry and devotion unequalled by any other struggle of the 
war. They felt that while they were fighting for the fortunes 
of the Confederacy, they were also contending for the ultimate 
restoration of Missouri, and that they would serve their State 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


309 


most effectually by following promptly and cheerfully Gens. 
Yan Dorn and Price to Tennessee. Their leader had been 
made a major-general in the Confederate service; the tardy 
act of promotion having been at last done from motives of 
policy, after all efforts had been made in vain to wring it from 
the obtuse official sense of justice. ITis influence was used to 
lead the troops of Missouri to new and distant fields of ser¬ 
vice, and his noble, patriotic appeals could not but be effectual 
to men who loved him, who had suffered with him, and were 
almost as his children.* 


* The annexed address of Gen. Price to the troops, who followed him across 
the Mississippi into the Confederate camp, will strike the reader as an ad¬ 
mirable appeal. Comprehensive in its terms, Napoleonic in spirit, and glow- 
ing with patriotic fire, it challenges comparison with some of the military 
orders of the most celebrated commanders in history. 

Headquarters, Missouri State Guard, 
Des Arc, Arkansas, April 3, 1862. 

Soldiers of the State Guard: 

I command you no longer. I have this day resigned the commission 
which your patient endurance, your devoted patriotism, and your dauntless 
bravery have made so honorable. I have done this that I may the better 
serve you, our State, and our country—that I may the sooner lead you back 
to the fertile prairies, the rich woodlands and majestic streams of our beloved 
Missouri, that I may the more certainly restore you to your once happy homes, 
and to the loved ones there. 

Five thousand of those who have fought side by side with us under the 
grizzly bears of Missouri, have followed me into the Confederate camp. They 
appeal to you, as I do, by all the tender memories of the past, not to leave us 
now, but to go with us wherever the path of duty may lead, till we shall have 
conquered a peace, and won our independence by brilliant deeds upon new 
fields of battle. 

Soldiers of the State Guard! veterans of six pitched battles and nearly 
twenty skirmishes! conquerors in them all! your country, with its “ruined 
hearths and shrines,” calls upon you to rally once more in her defence, and 
rescue her forever from the terrible thraldom which threatens her. I know 
that she will not call in vain. The insolent and barbarous hordes which have 
dared to invade our sod, and to desecrate our homes, have just met with a 
signal overthrow beyond the Mississippi. Now is the time to end this un¬ 
happy war. If every man will but do his duty, his own roof will shelter him 
in peace from the storms of the coming winter. 

Let not history record that the men who bore with patience the privations 
of Cowskin Prairie, who endured uncomplainingly the burning heats of a 
Missouri summer, and the frosts and snows of a Missouri winter; that the 
men who met the enemy at Carthage, at Oak Hills, at Fort Scott, at Lexing¬ 
ton, and in numberless lesser battle-fields in Missouri, and met them but ti 




310 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


It was generally considered in the South that the victory of 
its arms at Shiloh fully compensated the loss of Island Ho. 10, 
and that the Mississippi river below Fort Pillow, with its rich 
and productive valley, might be accounted safe, with the great 
army at Corinth covering Memphis, and holding the enemy in 
check on the land. But a great disaster was to occur where it 
was least expected, and where it involved the most immense 
consequences—a disaster which was to astound the South, which 
was to shake the confidence of the world in the fortunes of the 
Confederacy, and which was to lead, by unavoidable steps, to 
the abandonment to the enemy of the great Yalley of the Mis 
sissippi. 


THE FALL OF NEW ORLEANS. 

When it was known in Richmond that the Federal fleet, 
which had so long threatened Hew Orleans, had at last com- 
menced an attack on the Mississippi river forts, Jackson and 
St. Philip, no uneasiness was felt for the result. The enemy’s 
fleet, which was to be engaged in this demonstration, was of 
formidable size. It consisted of forty-six sail, carrying two 
hundred and eighty-six guns and twenty-one mortars; the 
whole under the command of Flag-officer Farragut, a renegade 
Tennesseean. But it was declared, with the most emphatic 
confidence, that Hew Orleans was impregnable; the forts, 
Jackson and St. Philip, were considered but as the outer line 
of defences; vast sums of money had been expended to line the 
shores of the river with batteries; the city itself was occupied 
by what was popularly supposed to be a large and disciplined 
Confederate force under Gen. Lovell, and in its harbor was a 
fleet consisting of twelve gunboats, one iron-clad steamer, and 
the famous ram Manassas. 

The authorities at Richmond did not hesitate to express the 
most unlimited confidence in the safety of Hew Orleans, and 


conquer them; that the men who fought so bravely and so well at Elk Horn; 
that the unpaid soldiery of Missouri were, after so many victories, and after 
so much suffering, unequal to the great task of achieving the independence 
of their magnificent State. 

Soldiers! I go hut to mark a pathway to our homes. Follow me! 

STERLING PRICE. 



THE FIRS I' YEAR OF THE WAR. 


311 


refused even to entertain the probability of the enemy's pene¬ 
trating the outer line of defence, constituted by the river forts, 
which were about sixty miles below the city. General Duncan, 
who was said to be the best artillerist in the Confederate ser¬ 
vice, was in command of the forts. On the 23d of April he 
had telegraphed the most encouraging account of their condi¬ 
tion. The bombardment had then been continued for a week 
with extraordinary vigor. Nearly 25,000 thirteen-inch shell 
had been thrown by the enemy’s mortar-boats, many thousands 
having fallen within the fort. But, in spite of this unremitting 
bombardment, the works were not at all damaged; only three 
guns had been dismounted, and the garrison had suffered only 
to the extent of five killed and ten wounded. 

The public were inspired w T ith confidence of a favorable 
result. The citizens of New Orleans, never doubting the im¬ 
pregnability of the defences of their city, were occupied as 
usual with the avocations of business and trade. The morning 
succeeding the date of the encouraging telegram of General 
Duncan was to witness scenes of the most extraordinary con¬ 
sternation, and to usher in the appalling intelligence of the 
enemy’s approach to the city. 

At half-past three o’clock, on the morning of the 24th of 
April, the Federal fleet steamed up the river and opened on 
our gunboats and both the forts, Jackson and St. Philip. The 
fire was vigorously returned by our side, and in a very short 
time became perfectly furious, the enemy’s fleet and our whole 
force being engaged. In about one hour several of the enemy’s 
vessels passed the forts—the first one in the advance having 
our night signal flying, which protected her from the fire of 
our boats, until she ran up close and opened the fire herself. 

The citizens of New Orleans were awakened from their dream 
of security to hear the tolling of the alarm bells announcing 
the approach of the foe. It was about 9 o’clock, on the morn¬ 
ing of the 24th, that the intelligence was received. The whole 
city was at once thrown into intense commotion; every one 
rushed into the streets—to the public places—to head-quarters 
—to the City Hall—inquiring the meaning of the agitation 
which prevailed, the extent of the danger, and its proximity. 
It was soon announced, on authority, that the enemy’s vessels 
had succeeded in passing the forts and were then on their w r ay 


312 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


to the city. The number was not known, but was afterwards 
ascertained to amount to five heavy sloops-of-war and seven or 
eight gunboats. 

The attempt of the enemy had been audacious, but was aided 
by various contingencies. The defences of the Mississippi 
consisted of the two forts already mentioned—Jackson and St. 
Philip—the former situated on the left bank, and the latter on 
the right bank of the river. About three-quarters of a mile 
below, the river had been obstructed by means of a raft con¬ 
sisting of a line of eleven dismasted schooners, extending from 
bank to bank, strongly moored, and connected together with 
six heavy chains. Unfortunately, a violent storm had rent a 
large chasm in the raft, which could not be closed in time. 

It appears, too, that on the night of the attack, the river 
had not been lighted by fire-rafts, although General Lovell had 
several times requested that it should be done. Moreover, the 
person in charge of the signals neglected to throw up rockets 
on the approach of the fleet, and, by a strange coincidence, the 
enemy’s signals, on that night, were identically the same as 
those used by our gunboats. The consequence was, that the 
advance of the enemy’s vessels was not discovered until they 
were abreast of the forts. 

The conflict between the Federal fleet and our fleet and forts, 
was of a desperate character. The forts opened fire from all 
their guns that could be brought to bear; but it was too late 
to produce much impression. The ships passed on, the Hart¬ 
ford, Commodore Farragut’s flag-ship in the van, delivering 
broadsides of grape, shrapnell, and round-shot at the forts on 
either side. On arriving at this point they encountered the 
Confederate fleet, consisting of seventeen vessels in all, only 
about eight of which were armed. The Confederate gunboats 
carried, some of them, two guns, and others only one. Never¬ 
theless, they fought with desperation against the enemy’s over¬ 
whelming force, until they were all driven on shore and scuttled 
or burned by their commanders. The Manassas was not 
injured by the enemy’s fire. She was run ashore and then 
sunk. The Louisiana, the great iron-clad vessel, built to com 
pete with the success lately won by the famous Virginia, was 
not in good working order. She could not manoeuvre, and 
only her three bow-guns could be used, although her full com 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


313 


plement consisted of eighteen. She emerged from the action 
totally uninjured. The broadsides of the Pensacola, delivered 
three times, within a distance of ten yards, failed to loosen a 
single fastening, or to penetrate a single plate. The forts, 
likewise, remained intact; but the garrisons lost 52, in killed 
and wounded. Commander McIntosh was desperately wounded. 
He and Commander Mitchell both stood on the deck of the 
Louisiana during the whole engagement. 

Gen. Lovell arrived just in time to see the Federal fleet pass¬ 
ing Fort St. Philip, and to witness the desperate but ineffectual 
attempt of the Confederate gunboats to check its progress up 
the river. Just at this moment, the Iroon, one of the enemy’s 
vessels started in pursuit of the Doubloon, Gen. Lovell’s boat, 
and was rapidly overhauling her, when the Governor Moore 
darted upon the Iroon, and ran into her three times. The 
Federal vessel managed to escape from this assault, and was 
again chasing the Doubloon, when the Quitman attacked her, 
ran into her amidships, and sank her. Thus General Lovell 
narrowly escaped capture. In the mean time, Captain Kennon, 
commanding the gunboat Governor Moore, sped down the 
river into the midst of the enemy’s fleet, darting hither and 
thither, attacking first one and then another of his monstrous 
antagonists, until he had fired away his last round of ammu¬ 
nition. He then drove his vessel ashore, and applied the torch 
to her with his own hand. In this way the forts were eluded, 
the Confederate naval forces destroyed, and the great city of 
Hew Orleans placed at the mercy of the Federal squadron. 

At 2 o’clock, p. m., on the 24th, General Lovell arrived at 
the city, having driven and ridden almost the whole way up 
along the levee. He was immediately called on by the mayor 
and many other citizens, and in reply to the inquiries of these 
gentlemen, stated that the intelligence already received was 
correct; that the enemy’s fleet had passed the forts in force, 
and that the city was indefensible and untenable. 

The hasty withdrawal of Gen. Lovell’s army from the city 
drew upon him severe public censure; but the applications of 
this censure were made in ignorance of the facts, and the evi¬ 
dence which afterwards transpired showed that the evacuation 
had been made at the urgent instance of the civil authorities 
themselves of Hew Orleans, who had entreated the Confederate 


314 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


commander to retire from their midst, in order to save the city 
from the risk of bombardment. Gen. Lovell expressed a readi¬ 
ness and willingness to remain with all the troops under his 
command. But it was the undivided expression of public 
opinion that the army had better retire and save the city from 
destruction; and, accordingly, the general ordered his troops 
to rendezvous at Camp Moore, about seventy miles above New 
Orleans, on the Jackson railroad. 

A demand was made by Farragut for the surrender of the 
command, which Gen. Lovell positively refused, but told the 
officer who bore the message, that if any Federal troops were 
landed he would attack them. Two days after he retired, it 
was said that the city had changed its purpose, and preferred 
a bombardment to occupation by the enemy. General Lovell 
promptly ordered a train and proceeded to New Orleans, and 
immediately had an interview with Mayor Monroe, offering, if 
such was the desire of the authorities and people, to return 
with his command and hold the city as long as a man and shot 
were left. 

This offer not being accepted, it was decided that the safety 
of the large number of unprotected women and children should 
be looked to, and that the fleet would be permitted to take 
possession. The raw and poorly armed infantry could by this 
time have done nothing against the fleet. 

The impression which prevailed, that General Lovell had a 
large army under his command, was singularly erroneous. 
His army had been stripped to reinforce that at Corinth, and, 
since the 1st of March, he had sent ten full regiments to Gen. 
Beauregard, besides many companies of cavalry and artillery. 
The morning report on the day of the evacuation of New Or¬ 
leans showed his force to be about twenty-eight hundred men, 
two-thirds of whom were the volunteer and military companies 
which had recently been put in camp. 

Notwithstanding, however, these facts, the circumstances in 
which Gen. Lovell agreed to evacuate the city under the 
persuasion of the civil authorities, appeared by no means to be 
in that desperate extremity that would have justified the step 
in military j udgment; and it was thought by a considerable 
portion of the public, not without apparent reason, that the 
evacuation, at the time it was undertaken, was ill-advised, 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


315 


hasty, and the result of panic or selfish clamors in the com¬ 
munity. 

The evacuation was begun on the 24th of April. At this 
time the river forts had not fallen; but two of the enemy’s 
gunboats actually threatened the city; and the works at Chal- 
mette—five 32-pounders on one side of the river, and nine on 
the other—were still intact. But it is known that there were 
reasons other than those which were apparent to the public, 
which decided Gen. Lovell to evacuate the city, and which 
were kept carefully to himself for obvious reasons. Gen. Lovell 
was fully aware that a single frigate anchored at Kenner’s 
plantation, ten miles above the city, where the swamp and the 
river approached within less than a mile of each other, and 
through which narrow neck the railroad passes, would have 
effectually obstructed an exit of troops or stores from the city 
by land. 

This was doubtless the real or most powerful reason for the' 
evacuation of the city * 

On the morning of the next day, the Federal ships appeared 
off the Chalmette batteries, which exchanged a few shots with 
them, but without effect. Passing the lower batteries, the ships 
came up the river under full headway, the Hartford leading, 
then the Brooklyn, the Bichmond, the Pensacola, and six gun¬ 
boats. On and on they came, until they had extended their 
line a distance of about five miles, taking positions at intervals 
of about 900 yards apart. The scene on the water and in the 
city was alike extraordinary. The Confederate troops were still 
busy in the work of evacuation, ,and the streets were thronged 
with carts, drays, vehicles of all descriptions, laden with the 
multifarious articles-constituting the paraphernalia and imple¬ 
ments of warfare. Officers on horseback were galloping hither 
- and thither, receiving and executing orders. The streets were- 


* The water at Kenner’s was so high that a ship’s guns could have had a> 
clear sweep from the river to the swamp, and there would have been no neces¬ 
sity of any bombardment; the people and the army of New Orleans would 
have been cut off and starved into a surrender in a short time. The failure of 
the enemy to occupy Kenner’s, for which it is impossible to account, enabled 
Gen. Lovell to bring out of the city nearly all the portable government 
property necessary for war purposes, as well as a large part of the State 
property. 


21 





316 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


crowded with persons rushing about with parcels of sugar, 
buckets of molasses, and packages of provisions plundered 
from the public stores. Others were busying themselves with 
patriotic zeal to destroy property of value to the enemy, an 
huge loads of cotton went rumbling along on the way to the 
levee. 

No sooner had the Federal fleet turned the point and come 
within sight of the city, than the work of destruction of prop¬ 
erty commenced. Vast columns of smoke ascended to the sky, 
darkening the face of heaven, and obscuring the noon-day sun; 
for five miles along the levee fierce flames darted through the 
lurid atmosphere, their baleful glare struggling in rivalry witli 
the sunlight; great ships and steamers, wrapped in fire, floated 
down the river, threatening the Federal vessels with destruc¬ 
tion by their fiery contact. In front of the various presses, 
and at other points along the levee, the cotton had been piled 
up and submitted to the torch. It was burned by order of 
the governor of Louisiana and of the military commander of 
the Confederate States. Fifteen thousand bales were con¬ 
sumed, the value of which would have been about a million 
and a half of dollars. The tobacco stored in the city, being all 
held by foreign residents on foreign account, was not destroyed. 
The specie of the banks, to the amount of twelve or fifteen mil¬ 
lions, was removed from the city and placed in a secure place; 
so were nearly all the stores and movable property of the 
Confederate States. But other materials were embraced in the 
awful conflagration. About a dozen large river steamboats, 
twelve or fifteen ships, some of them laden with cotton, a great 
floating battery, several unfinished gunboats, the immense ram, 
the Mississippi, and the docks on the other side of the river, 
were all embraced in the fiery sacrifice. The Mississippi was 
an iron-clad frigate, a superior vessel of her class, and accounted 
to be by far the most important naval structure the Confederate 
government had yet undertaken. 

On evacuating the city, Gen. Lovell had left it under the ex¬ 
clusive jurisdiction of Mayor Monroe. That officer, although 
he had appealed to Gen. Lovell to evacuate the city, so as to 
avoid such exasperation or conflict as might put the city in 
peril of bombardment, was not willing to surrender it to the 
enemy; but was content, after due protestations of patriotic 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


317 


fervor, that the enemy should perform, without interruption, 
the ceremony of surrender for himself in taking down the flags 
flying over all the public buildings of the city. A correspond¬ 
ence ensued between the mayor and the flag-officer of the 
enemy’s fleet. The correspondence was certainly of very un¬ 
necessary length on the part of the mayor, and was travestied 
in the Northern newspapers as a controversy between “ Far¬ 
rago and Farragut .” But the sentiments of the mayor, al¬ 
though tedious and full of vain repetitions, were just and 
honorable. He declared, with explanations that were not 
necessary to be given to the enemy, and at a length that 
showed rather too much the vanity of literary style, that the 
citizens of New Orleans yielded to physical force alone, and 
that they maintained their allegiance to the government of the 
Confederate States. 

On the morning of the 26th of April, a force landed from the 
sloop-of-war Pensacola, lying opposite Esplanade-street and 
hoisted a United States flag upon the mint. It had not remained 
there long before some young men, belonging to the Pinckney 
battalion, mounted to the dome of the mint, tore it down and 
dragged it through the streets. 

Whether Flag-officer Farragut was exasperated or not by this 
circumstance, is not known; but he seemed to have determined 
to spare no mortification to the city, which its civil officers had 
already assured him was unprepared to resist him, and to hesi¬ 
tate at no misrepresentation in order to vilify its citizens. In 
one of his letters to the mayor, he had sought to publish the 
fact to the world, that helpless men, women, and children had 
been fired upon by the citizens of New Orleans “ for giving 
expression to their pleasure at witnessing the old flagwhen 
the fact was, that the cheering on the levee referred to had 
been, in defiance of the enemy, for “ the Southern Confederacy,” 
and the only firing in the crowd was that of incautious and 
exasperated citizens at the Federal fleet. 

* The State flag of Louisiana still floated from the City Hall. 
It was an emblem of nothing more than State sovereignty, and 
yet it too was required to be lowered at the unreasonable and 
harsh demand of the invader. A memorial, praying the com¬ 
mon council to protect at least the emblem of State sovereign¬ 
ty from insult, was signed by a large number of the noble 


818 THE FIRST YEAR ^ OF THE WAR. 

women of New Orleans, including many of tlie wealthiest, 
fairest, and highest in social position in the city. The reply 
of the council was feeble and embarrassed. They passed a 
resolution declaring that “ no resistance would he made to the 
forces of the United States approving, at the same time, the 
“ sentiments” expressed by the mayor, and requesting him “to 
act in the spirit manifested by them.” 

On the 28th of April, Flag-officer Farragut addressed his 
ultimatum to the mayor, complaining of the continued display 
of the flag of Louisiana on the City Hall, and concluding with 
a threat of bombardment of the city by notifying him to re¬ 
move the women and children from its limits within forty-eight 
hours. The mayor replied with new spirit, that the satisfac¬ 
tion which was asked at the hands of a vanquished people, 
that they should lower with their own hands their State flag, 
and perform an act against which their natures rebelled, would 
not, under any circumstances, be given; that there was no 
possible exit from the city for its immense population of the 
women and children, and that if the enemy chose to murder 
them on a question of etiquette, he might do his pleasure. 

In the delay of the enemy’s actual occupation of the city, 
while the correspondence referred to between the mayor and 
the enemy was in progress, the confidence of the people of 
New Orleans had, in a measure, been rallied. There were yet 
some glimmers of hope. They thought that, with the forts 
still holding out, and the enemy’s transports unable to get up 
the river, the city might be saved. The fleet had no forces 
with which to occupy it, and there was no access for an army 
except by way of the lakes. They had determined to cut the 
levee below should Gen Butler, in command of the land forces, 
attempt an approach from Lake Borgne, and above the city, 
should he make the effort from Lake Pontchartrain. In the 
last resort, they were determined to man the lines around the 
city, armed with such weapons as they could procure, and 
fight the Federal land forces whenever they might make tlieir 
appearance. 

These hopes were suddenly dispelled by the unexpected new 
of the fall of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Fort Jackson had 
been very little damaged in the bombardment. It yielded 
because of a mutiny of three or four hundred of the garrison, 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 319 

who refused to obey the commands of its brave officer, Gen. 
Duncan. He had no alternative but to give up the place. At 
the first signs of the mutinous disposition, he threatened to 
turn his guns on his own men, but found a large number of 
them spiked. He surrendered, in fact, to his own garrison. 
The post could, probably, have been held, if the men had stood 
to their guns. He stated this in an address on the levee to the 
people, and, while stating it, cried like a child. 

The nevrs of the surrender of the river forts effected a sud¬ 
den change in the views of Flag-officer Farragut. He was 
evidently anxious lest Gen. Butler, to whose transports a way 
had now been opened to the city, should arrive before he could 
consummate the objects of his expedition. He had already 
involved himself in a maze of incongruities and contradictions. 
First, he demanded peremptorily that the flag should be taken 
down; then he insisted that it should be removed before 12 m. 
on Saturday, the 28th; on Monday, he repeated the demand, 
under a threat of bombardment, giving forty-eight hours for 
the removal of the women and children. On Tuesday morn¬ 
ing, he reiterated his peremptory demand, but, within an hour, 
he agreed to waive every thing he had claimed, and reluctantly 
consented to send his own forces to take down the flag. 

About noon, a Federal force, consisting of about two hun¬ 
dred armed marines and a number of sailors, dragging two 
brass howitzers, appeared in front of the City Hall, and the 
officer in command, mounting to the dome of the building, re¬ 
moved the flag of the State in sight of an immense crowd of 
the citizens of Hew Orleans. Ho interruption was offered to 
the small party of the Federals, and the idle utterances of 
curiosity were quelled by the sadness and solemnity of the 
occasion. Profound silence pervaded the immense crowd. Hot 
even a whisper was heard. The very air was oppressive with 
stillness. The marines stood statue-like within the square, 
their bayonets glistening in the sunbeams, and their faces stolid 
with indifference. Among the vast multitude of citizens, the wet 
cheeks of women and the compressed lips and darkened brows 
of men betrayed their consciousness of the great humiliation 
which had overtaken them. But among them all there was not 
one spirit to emulate the devotion of the martyr-hero of Vir¬ 
ginia, who, alone and unaided, on the steps of the Marshall 


320 


THE FIRST YEAR* OF THE WAR. 


House, in Alexandria, liad avenged with his life the first insult 
ever offered by the enemy to the flag of his country. 

Thus was the surrender of the city of Hew Orleans complet¬ 
ed. Gen. Butler took possession on the 1st of May, and in¬ 
augurated an administration, the despotism and insolence of 
which might haye been expected from one of his vile personal 
character and infamous antecedents. He was a man who had 
all the proverbially mean instincts of the Massachusetts Yan¬ 
kee; he had been a disreputable jury lawyer at home; as a 
member of the old Democratic party, he had been loud in his 
professions of devotion to the South; but his glorification in 
this particular had been dampened in the Charleston Conven¬ 
tion, where he pocketed an insult from a Southern delegate, and 
turned pale at the threat of personal chastisement. The war 
gave him an opportunity of achieving one of those easy repu¬ 
tations in the North which were made by brazen boastfulness, 
coarse abuse of the South, and aptitude in lying. We shall 
have future occasion to refer to the brutal and indecent des¬ 
potism of this vulgar tyrant of Hew Orleans, who, in inviting 
his soldiers to treat as prostitutes every lady in the street who 
dared to show displeasure at their presence, surpassed the 
atrocities of Haynau, and rivalled the most barbarous and 
fiendish rule of vengeance ever sought to be wreaked upon a 
conquered people. If any thing were wanting to make the 
soldiers of the South devote anew whatever they had of life, 
and labor, and blood to the cause of the safety and honor of 
their country, it was the infamous swagger of Butler in Hew 
Orleans, his autocratic rule, his arrest of the best citizens, his 
almost daily robberies, and his “ ingenious” war upon the help¬ 
lessness of men and the virtue of women. 

The narrative of the fall of Hew Orleans furnishes its own 
comment. Never was there a more miserable story, where 
accident, improvidence, treachery, vacillation, and embarrass¬ 
ment of purpose, each, perhaps, not of great importance in it¬ 
self, combined under an evil star to produce the astounding 
result of the fall, after an engagement, the casualties of which 
might be counted by hundreds, of a city which was the commer¬ 
cial capital of the South, which contained a population of one 
hundred and seventy thousand souls, and which was the largest 
exporting city in the world. 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


321 


The extent of the disaster is not to be disguised. It was a 
heavy blow to the Confederacy. It annihilated us in Louisi¬ 
ana ; separated us from Texas and Arkansas; diminished our 
resources and supplies by the loss of one of the greatest grain 
and cattle countries within the limits of the Confederacy; gave 
to the enemy the Mississippi river, with all it # s means of navi¬ 
gation, for a base of operations; and finally led, by plain and 
irresistible conclusion, to our virtual abandonment of the great 
and fruitful Yalley of the Mississippi.—It did all this, and yet 
it was very far from deciding the fate of the war. 


322 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

» 

CONCLUSION. 

Prospects of the War.—The Extremity of the South.—Lights and Shadows of the 
Campaign in Virginia.—Jackson’s Campaign in the Valley.—The Policy of Concen¬ 
tration.—Sketch of the Battles around Richmond.—Effect of McClellan’s Defeat upon 
the North.—President Davis’s congratulatory Order.—The War as a great Money 
Job.— Note: Gen. Washington’s Opinion of the Northern People.—Statement of the 
Northern Finances.—Yankee Venom.—Gen. Pope’s Military Orders.—Summary of 
the War Legislation of the Northern Congress.—Retaliation on the part of the Con¬ 
federacy.—The Cartel.—Prospects of European Interference.—English Statesmanship. 
—Progress of the War in the West.—The Defence of Vicksburg.—Morgan’s great 
Raid.—The Tennessee-Virginia Frontier.—A Glance at the Confederate Congress.—. 
Mr. Foote and the Cabinet.—The Campaign in Virginia again.—Rapid Movements 
and famous March of the Southern Troops .—The signal Victory of the Thirtieth of 
August on the Plains of Manassas .—Reflections on the War.—Some of its Character¬ 
istics.—A Review of its Military Results.—Three Moral Benefits of the War.—Pros¬ 
pects and Promises of the Future. 

We have chosen the memorable epoch of the fall of Hew Or¬ 
leans, properly dated from the occupation of the enemy on the 
1st of May, 1862, as an appropriate period for the conclusion 
of our historical narrative of the events of the first year of the 
war. Hereafter, in the future continuation of the narrative, 
which we promise to ourselves, we shall have to direct the at¬ 
tention of the reader to the important movements, the sorrow¬ 
ful disasters, and the splendid achievements, that more than 
compensated the inflictions of misfortune, in the famous summer 
campaign in Yirginia. In these we shall find full confirmation 
of the judgment which we have declared, that the fall of Hew 
Orleans, and the consequent loss of the Mississippi Yalley, did 
not decide the fate of the war; and, indeed, we shall see that 
the abandonment of our plan of frontier defence made the way 
for the superior and more fortunate policy of the concentration 
of our* forces in the interior. 

The fall of Hew Orleans and consequent loss of our command 
of the Mississippi river from Hew Orleans to Memphis, with 
all its immense advantages of transportation and supply; the re¬ 
treat of Gen. Johnston’s forces from Yorktown; the evacuation 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


323 


of Norfolk, with, its splendid navy-yard—an event accomplish¬ 
ed by a mere Irutum fulmen , and without a blow; the stupid 
and unnecessary destruction of the Virginia, “ the iron diadem 
of the South; ” * the perilous condition of Charleston, Savan- 

*,The destruction of tlie Virginia was a sharp and unexpected blow to the 
confidence of the people of the South in their government. 

How far the government was implicated in this foolish and desperate act, 
was never openly acknowledged or exactly ascertained; but, despite the pains 
of official concealment, there are certain well-attested facts which indicate 
that in the destruction of this great war-ship, the authorities at Richmond 
were not guiltless. These facts properly belong to the history of one of the 
most unhappy events that had occurred since the commencement of the war. 

The Virginia was destroyed under the immediate orders of her commander, 
Commodore Tatnall, a little before five o’clock on the morning of the 11th of 
May, in the vicinity of Craney Island. During the morning of the same day a 
prominent politician in the streets of Richmond was observed to be very much 
dejected; lie-remarked that it was an evil day for the Confederacy. 

On being questioned by his intimate friends, he declared to them that the 
government had determined upon, or assented to, the destruction of the Vir¬ 
ginia, and that he had learned this from the highest sources of authority in the 
capital. At this time the news of the explosion of the Virginia could not have 
possibly reached Richmond; there was no telegraphic communication between 
the scene of her destruction and the city, and the evidence appears .to be com¬ 
plete, that the government had at least a prevision of the destruction of this 
vessel, or had assented to the general policy of the act, trusting, perhaps, to 
acquit itself of the responsibility for it on the unworthy plea that it had given 
no express orders in the matter. 

Again, it is well known that for at least a week prior to the destruction of 
the Virginia, the evacuation of Norfolk had been determined upon; that dur¬ 
ing the time the removal of stores was daily progressing; and that Mr. 
Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, had within this period, himself, visited 
Norfolk’to look after the public interests. The evacuation of this port clearly 
involved the question, what disposition was to be made of the Virginia. 

If the government made no decision of a question, which for a week stared 
it in the face, it certainly was very strangely neglectful of the public interest. 
If Mr. Mallory visited Norfolk when the evacuation was going on, and never 
thought of the Virginia, or, thinking of her, kept dumb, never even giving so 
much as an official nod as to what disposition should be made of her, he must 
have been even more stupid than the people who laughed at him in Rich¬ 
mond, or the members of Congress who nicknamed without mercy, thought 

111 It is also not a little singular that when a court of inquiry had found that 
the destruction of the Virginia was unnecessary and improper, Mr. Mallory 
should have waived the calling of a court-martial, forgotten what was due to 
the public interest on such a finding as that made by the preliminary court, 
and expressed himself satisfied to let the matter rest. The fact is indisputable, 
that the court-martial was called at the demand of Commodore Tatnall him¬ 
self. It resulted in his acquittal. 



324 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


nah, and M'obile, and the menace of Richmond by one of the 
largest armies of the world, awakened the people of the South 
to a full appreciation of the crisis of the war, and placed their 
cause in an extremity which nothing could have retrieved but 
the undiminished and devoted spirit of their brave soldiers in 
the field. 

We shall have, however, to mingle with this story of disas¬ 
ters, the triumphs, not indeed of the government, but of brave 
and adventurous spirits in the field. We shall tell how it was 
that the retreat from Yorktown, although undertaken without 
any settled plan as to the line of defence upon which it was to 
be reorganized, led to the successful battle of Williamsburg; 
we shall recount the events of the glorious battle of Seven 
Pines, the sound of whose guns was heard by the people of 
Richmond, and was followed by the speedy messages of a 
splendid victory; and we shall tell how it was that, while the 
news of the destruction of the Yirginia was still the bitterest 
reminiscence of the people of the South, and while Secretary 
Mallory was making a drivelling show of alacrity to meet the 
enemy by advertising for “timber” to construct new naval 
defences, a powerful flotilla of Yankee gunboats was repulsed 
by a battery of four guns on the banks of James river, and the 
scale of war turned by even such a small incident as the action 
of Drury’s Bluff. In this connection, too, we shall have to 
record the evidences of the heroic sp>irit that challenged the 
approaching enemy ; the noble resolution of the citizens of 
Richmond to see their beautiful city consigned to the horrors 
of a bombardment, rather than to the hands of the enemy; 
and the brave resolution of the Yirginia Legislature, which 
put the Confederate authorities to shame, and infused the 
hearts of the people with a new and lively spirit of courage 
and devotion.* 


* “ Resolved by the General Assembly: That the General Assembly hereby 
express its desire that the capital of the State be defended to the last ex¬ 
tremity, if such defence is in accordance with the views of the President of the 
Confederate States; and that the President be assured that whatever destruc¬ 
tion or loss of property of the State or individuals shall thereby result, will bo 
cheerfully submitted to .”—Resolution Va. Legislature, May 14. 

“ Some one said to me the other day, that the duty of surrendering the city 
would devolve either upon the President, the Mayor, or myself. I said to him, 





THE FIRST YEAR OF TIIE WAR. 


325 


But we shall have occasion to tell of even more brilliant 
triumphs of Southern spirit, and to explain how, for some time 
at least, the safety of Richmond was trusted not so much to 
the fortunes of the forces that immediately protected it, as to 
the splendid diversion of the heroic Jackson in the Yalley of 
Virginia. 

AVe shall see how this brave general, whom the government 
had determined to recall to Gen. Johnston’s lines, rejected the 
suggestions of the surrender of the Yalley, and his personal 
ease, and adventured upon a campaign, the most successful and 
brilliant in the war. We shall trace with particular interest 
the events of this glorious expedition, and we shall find reason 
to ascribe its results to the zeal, heroism, and genius of its com¬ 
mander alone. We shall recount the splendid victory over 
Banks, the recovery of Winchester, the capture of four thou¬ 
sand prisoners, the annihilation of the invading army of the 
Yalley, and the heroic deeds which threw the splendor of sun¬ 
light over the long lines of the Confederate host. The readei 
will have occasion to compare the campaign of General Jack 
son in the Yalley of Virginia, with some of the most famous 
in modern history. We shall show that, in this brief, but bril¬ 
liant campaign, a gallant Southern army fought four battles 
and a number of skirmishes; killed and wounded a considera¬ 
ble number of the enemy, took several thousand prisoners, 
secured millions of dollars of stores, destroyed many millions 
of dollars’ worth for the enemy, and chased the Federal army, 
commanded by General Banks, out of Virginia and across the 
Potomac; and that all these events were accomplished within 
the period of three weeks, and with a loss scarcely exceeding 
one hundred in killed and wounded. 

In this story of disaster, mingled with triumph, we shall be 


if the demand is made upon me, with the alternative to surrender or b« 
shelled, I shall reply, Bombard and be Damned.”— Speech of Gov. Letcher, 
May 16. 

“ I say now, and will abide by it, when the citizens of Richmond demand oi 
me to surrender the capital of Virginia and of the Confederacy to the enemy, 
they must find some other man to fill my place. I will resign the mayoralty. 
And when that other man elected in my stead shall deliver up the city, I hope 
I have physical courage and strength enough left to shoulder a musket and go 
into the ranks .”—Speech of Mayor Mayo , May 16. 



326 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


disappointed if we do not discover the substantial prospect oi 
brighter fortunes and final triumph for the South. 

Indeed, the fact will be shown to be, that events, although 
mixed and uncertain to the views taken of them at the time of 
their occurrence, were preparing the way for a great victory 
and a sudden illumination of the fortunes of the South. 

The disasters on the Mississippi frontier and in other direc¬ 
tions had constrained the government to adopt the policy of 
concentrating its forces in the interior of Virginia. The ob¬ 
ject of all war is to reach a decisive point of the campaign, 
and this object was realized by a policy which it is true the 
government had not adopted at the instance of reason, but 
which had been imposed upon it by the force of disaster. 
There were childish complaints that certain districts and points 
on the frontier had been abandoned by the Confederates for 
the purpose of a concentration of troops in Virginia. These 
complaints were alike selfish and senseless, and, in some cases, 
nothing more than the utterance of a demagogical, short¬ 
sighted, and selfish spirit, which would have preferred the 
apparent security of its own particular State or section to the 
fortunes of the whole Confederacy. The fact was, that there 
was cause of intelligent congratulation even in those districts 
from which the Confederate troops had been withdrawn to 
make a decisive battle, that we had at last reached a crisis, 
the decision of which might reverse all our past misfortunes, 
and achieve results in which every State of the Confederacy 
would have a share. 

On the Richmond lines, two of the greatest and most splen¬ 
did armies that had ever been arrayed on a single field con¬ 
fronted each other; every accession that could be procured 
from the most distant quarters to their numbers, and every 
thing that could be drawn from the resources of the respective 
countries of each, had been made to contribute to the strength 
and splendor of the opposing hosts. 

Since the commencement of the war, the North had taxed 
its resources for the capture of Richmond; nothing was omit¬ 
ted for the accomplishment of this event; the way had to be l 
opened to the capital by tedious and elaborate operations on 
the frontier of Virginia: this accomplished, the city of Rich¬ 
mond was surrounded by an army whose numbers was all that 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


327 


could be desired; composed of picked forces; having every 
advantage that science and art could bestow in fortifications 
and every appliance of war; assisted by gunboat flotillas in 
two rivers, and endowed with every thing that could assure 
success. 

The Northern journals were unreserved in the statement 
that the commands of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell, had 
been consolidated into one army, under Major-general Pope, 
with a view of bringing all the Federal forces in Virginia, to 
co-operate with McClellan on the Kichmond lines. A portion 
of this army must have reached McClellan, probably at an 
early stage of the engagements in the vicinity of Kichmond. 
There is little doubt but that, in the memorable contest for the 
safety of Kichmond, we engaged an army whose superiority 
in numbers to us was largely increased by timely reinforce¬ 
ments, and with regard to the operations of which the North¬ 
ern government had omitted no conditions of success. 

Of this contest, unparalleled in its duration; rich in dra¬ 
matic incident and display ; remarkable for a series of battles, 
any one of which might rank with the most celebrated in his¬ 
tory ; and distinguished by an obstinacy, on the part of the 
sullen and insolent enemy, that was broken only by the most 
tremendous exertions ever made by Southern troops, we shall 
have to treat in a future continuation of this work, with the 
utmost care as to the authenticity of our narrative, and with 
matured views as to the merits and importance of whaFis now 
supposed to be a great and decisive event. 

For the present, merely for the purpose of extending the 
general record of events in this chapter to the present stand¬ 
point of intelligent reflection on the future of the war, we must 
content the reader with a very brief and summary sketch of 
the battles around Kichmond. Such a sketch is necessarily 
imperfect, written amid the confusion of current events, and is 
limited to the design of acquainting the reader with the gen¬ 
eral situation at this writing, without venturing, to a great de¬ 
gree, upon statements of particular facts. 


328 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


SKETCH OF THE BATTLES AROUND RICHMOND. 

Upon taking command of the Confederate army in the field, 
after Gen. Johnston had been wounded in the battle of Seven 
Pines, Gen Lee did not hesitate to adopt the spirit of that 
commander, which had already been displayed in attacking 
the enemy, and which indicated the determination on his part 
that the operations before Richmond should not degenerate 
into a siege. 

The course of the Chickahominy around Richmond affords 
an idea of the enemy’s position at the commencement of the 
action. This stream meanders through the tide-water district 
of Virginia—its course approaching that of the arc of a circle 
in the neighborhood of Richmond—until it reaches the lower 
end of Charles City county, where it abruptly turns to the south 
and empties into the James. A portion of the enemy’s forces 
had crossed to the south side of the Chickahominy, and were 
fortified on the Williamsburg road. On the north bank of the 
stream the enemy was strongly posted for many miles; the 
heights on that side of the stream having been fortified with 
great energy and skill from Meadow Bridge, on a line nearly 
due north from the city, to a point below Bottom’s Bridge, 
which is due east. This line of the enemy extended for about 
twenty miles. 

Reviewing the situation of the two armies at the commence¬ 
ment of the action, the advantage was entirely our own. McClel¬ 
lan had divided his army on the two sides of the Chickahomi¬ 
ny, and operating apparently with the design of half circum- 
vallating Richmond, had spread out his forces to an extent 
that impaired the faculty of concentration, and had made a 
weak and dangerous extension of his lines. 

On Thursday, the 26th of June, at three o’clock, Major- 
general Jackson—fresh from the exploits of his magnificent 
campaign in the Valley—took up his line of march from Ash¬ 
land, and proceeded down the country between. the Chicka¬ 
hominy and Pamunkey rivers. The enemy collected on tli , 
north bank of the Chickahominy, at the point where it is cross¬ 
ed by the Brooke turnpike, were driven off, and Brigadier- 
general Branch, crossing the stream, directed his movements 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


329 


for a junction with the column of Gen. A. P. Hill, which had 
crossed at Meadow Bridge. General Jackson having borne 
away from the Chickahominy, so as to gain ground towards 
the Pamunkey, marched to the left of Mechanicsville, while 
Gen. Hill, keeping well to the Chickahominy, approached that 
village and engaged the enemy there. 

With about fourteen thousand men (Gen. Branch did not ar¬ 
rive till nightfall), Gen. Hill engaged the forces of the enemy 
until night put an end to the contest. While he did not suc¬ 
ceed, in that limited time, in routing the enemy, his forces 
stubbornly maintained the possession of Mechanicsville and 
the ground taken by them on the other side of the Chicka¬ 
hominy. Driven from the immediate locality of Mechanics¬ 
ville, the enemy retreated during the night down the river to 
Powhite swamp, and night closed the operations of Thursday. 

The road having been cleared at Mechanicsville, Gen.'Long- 
street’s corps (Parmee , consisting of his veteran division of the 
Old Guard of the Army of the Potomac, and Gen. D. II. Hill’s 
division, debouched from the woods on the south side of the 
Chickahominy, and crossed that river. Friday morning the 
general advance upon the enemy began; Gen. A. P. Hill in 
the centre, and bearing towards Coal Harbor, while Gen. 
Longstreet and Gen. D. II. Hill came down the Chickahominy 
to Hew Bridge. Gen. Jackson still maintained his position in 
advance, far to the left, and gradually converging to the Chicka¬ 
hominy again. 

The position of the enemy was now a singular one. One 
portion of his army was on the south side of the Chickahominy, 
fronting Richmond, and confronted by Gen. Magruder. The 
other portion, on the north side, had fallen back to a new line of 
defences, where McClellan proposed to make a decisive battle: 

As soon as Jackson’s arrival at Coal Harbor was announced, 
Gen. Lee and Gen. Longstreet, accompanied by their respective 
staffs, rode by Gaines’s Mill, and halted at Hew Coal Harbor, 
where they joined General A. P. Hill. Soon the welcome 
sound of Jackson’s guns announced that he was at work. 

The action was now to become general for the first time on 
the Richmond lines; and a collision of numbers was about to 
take place equal to any that had yet occurred in the history of 
the war. 


330 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


From four o’clock until eight the battle raged with a display 
of the utmost daring and intrepidity on the part of the Con¬ 
federate army. The enemy’s lines were finally broken, and his 
strong positions all carried, and night covered the retreat oi 
McClellan’s broken and routed columns to the south side of the 
Chickahominy. 

The assault on the enemy’s works near Gaines’s Mills is a 
memorable part of the engagement of Friday, and the display 
of fortitude, as well as quick and dashing gallantry of our 
troops on that occasion, takes its place by the side of the most 
glorious exploits of the war. Gen. A. P. Hill had made the 
first assault upon the lines of the enemy’s intrenchments near 
Gaines’s Mills. A fierce struggle had ensued between his 
division and the garrison of the line of defence. Repeated 
charges were made by Hill’s troops, but the formidable charac¬ 
ter of the works, and murderous volleys of grape and canister 
from the artillery covering them, kept our troops in check. It 
was past four o’clock when Pickett’s brigade, from Longstreet’s 
division, came to Hill’s support. Pickett’s regiments fought 
with the most determined valor. At last Whiting’s division, 
composed of the “ Old Third” and Texan brigades, advanced at 
a “ double quick,” charged the batteries, and drove the enemy 
from his strong line of defence. The works carried by these 
noble troops would have been invincible tp the bayonet had 
they been garrisoned by men less dastardly than the Yankees. 

To keep the track of the battle, which had swept around 
Richmond, we must have reference to some of the principal 
points of locality in the enemy’s lines. It will be recollected 
that it was on Thursday evening when the attack was com¬ 
menced upon the enemy near Meadow Bridge. This locality 
is about six miles distant from the city, on a line almost due 
north. This position was the enemy’s extreme right. His 
lines extended from here across the Chickahominy, near the 
Powhite Creek, two or three miles above the crossing of the 
York River railroad. From Meadow Bridge to this railroad, 
the distance along the Chickahominy on the north side is about 
ten miles. The different stages between the points indicated, 
along which the enemy were driven, are Mechanicsville, about 
a mile north of the Chickahominy; further on, Beaver Dam 
Creek, emptying into the Chickahominy; then the Hew Bridge 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


.331 


road, on which Coal Harbor is located; and then Powhite 
Creek, where the enemy had made his last stand, and been re¬ 
pulsed from the field. 

The York Biver railroad runs in an easterly direction, inter¬ 
secting the Chickahominy about ten miles from the city. 
South of the railroad is the Williamsburg road, connecting with 
the Nine Mile road at Seven Pines. The former road connects 
with the New Bridge road, which turns off and crosses the 
Chickahominy. From Seven Pines, where the Nine Mile road 
joins the upper one, the road is known as the old Williamsburg 
road, and crosses the Chickahominy at Bottom’s Bridge. 

With the bearing of these localities in his mind, the reader 
will readily understand how it was that the enemy was driven 
from his original strongholds on the north side of the Chicka¬ 
hominy, and how, at the time of Friday’s battle, he had been 
compelled to surrender the possession of the Fredericksburg and 
Central railroads, and had been pressed to a position where he 
was cut off from the principal avenues of supply and escape. 
The disposition of our forces was such as to cut off all commu¬ 
nication between McClellan’s army and the White House, on 
the Pamunkey river; he had been driven completely from his 
northern line of defences; and it was supposed that he would 
be unable to extricate himself from his position without a vic¬ 
tory or a capitulation. In front of him being the Chickahominy,. 
which he had crossed—in his rear, were the divisions of Generals 
Longstreet, Magruder, and Huger, and, in the situation as it 
existed Saturday night, all hopes of his escape were thought to 
be impossible. 

On Sunday morning, it appears that our pickets, on the 
Nine Mile road, having engaged some small detachments of 
the enemy, and driven them beyond their fortifications, found 
them deserted. In a short while, it became known to our 
generals that McClellan, having massed his entire force on this 
side of the Chickahominy, was retreating towards James river. 

The intrenchments which the enemy had deserted, were 
found to be formidable and elaborate. That immediately across 
the railroad, at the six-mile post, which had been supposed to 
be light earth-work, designed to sweep the railroad, turned out 
to be an immense embrasured fortification, extending for hun¬ 
dreds of yards on either side of the track. Within this work 


332 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


were found great quantities of fixed ammunition, which had 
apparently been prepared for removal, and then deserted. All 
the cannon, as at other intrench men ts, had been carried off. A 
dense cloud of smoke was seen issuing from the woods two 
miles in advance of the battery, and half a mile to the right of 
the railroad. The smoke was found to proceed from a perfect 
mountain of the enemy’s commissary stores, consisting of sugar, 
coffee, and bacon, prepared meats, vegetables, &c., which he 
had fired. The fields and woods around this spot were covered 
with every description of clothing and camp equipage. No 
indication was wanting that the enemy had left this encamp¬ 
ment in haste and disorder. 

The enemy had been imperfectly watched at a conjuncture 
the most critical in the contest, and through some omission of 
our guard—the facts of which have as yet been but imperfectly 
developed—McClellan had succeeded in massing his entire 
force, and taking up a line of retreat, by which he hoped to 
reach the cover of his gunboats on the James. But the most 
unfortunate circumstance to us was, that since the enemy had 
escaped from us in his fortified camp, his retreat was favored 
by a country, the characteristics of which are unbroken forests 
and wide swamps, where it was impossible to pursue him with 
rapidity, and extremely difficult to reconnoitre his position so 
as to bring him to decisive battle. 

On Sunday morning, the divisions of Generals Hill and 
Longstreet crossed the Chickahominy, and were, during the 
whole of the day, moving in the hunt for the enemy. The dis¬ 
position which was made of our forces brought General Long- 
street on the enemy’s front, immediately supported by General 
Hill’s division consisting of six brigades. The forces com¬ 
manded by General Longstreet were his old division, consisting 
of six brigades. 

The position of the enemy was about five miles northeast 
of Darby town, on the New Market road. The immediate 
scene of the battle was a plain of sedge pines, in the cover of 
which the enemy’s forces were skilfully disposed—the locality 
being known as Frazier’s farm. In advancing upon the enemy, 
batteries of sixteen heavy guns were opened upon the advance 
columns of Gen. Hill. Our troops, pressing heroically forward, 
had no sooner got within musket range than the enemy, form- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


333 

fng several lines of battle, poured upon them from his heavy 
masses a devouring fire of musketry. The conflict became 
terrible, the air being filled with missiles of death, every mo¬ 
ment having its peculiar sound of terror, and every spot its 
sight of ghastly destruction and horror. It is impossible that 
in ail y of tlie series of engagements which had taken place 
within the past few days, and had tracked the lines of Kich- 
mond with fire and destruction, there could have been more 
desperate fighting on the part of our troops. Never was a more 
glorious victory plucked from more desperate and threatening 
circumstances.. While exposed to the double fire of the enemy’s 
batteries and his musketry, we were unable to contend with him 
vitli artillery. But although thus unmatched, our brave troops 
pressed on with unquailing vigor and a resistless courage, driving 
the enemy before them. This was accomplished without artillery, 
there being but one battery in Gen. Hill’s command on the spot, 
and that belonged to Longstreqt’s division, and could not be got 
into position. Thus the fight continued with an ardor and devo¬ 
tion that few battle-fields have ever illustrated. Step by step 
the enemy were driven back, his guns taken, and the ground 
he abandoned strewn with his dead. By half-past eight o’clock 
we had taken all his cannon, and, continuing to advance, had 
driven him a mile and a half from his ground of battle. 

Our forces were still advancing upon the retreating lines of 
the enemy. It was now about half-past nine o’clock, and very 
dark. Suddenly, as if it had burst from the heavens, a sheet 
of fire enveloped the front of our advance. The enemy had 
made another stand to receive us, and, from the black masses 
of his forces, it was evident that he had been heavily reinforced, 
and that another whole corps (Parmee had been brought up to 
contest the fortunes of the night. Line after line of battle was 
formed. It was evident that his heaviest columns were now 
being thrown against our small command, and it might have 
been supposed that he would only be satisfied with its annihi¬ 
lation. The loss here on our side was terrible. 

The situation being evidently hopeless for any further pur¬ 
suit of the fugitive enemy, who had now brought up such over¬ 
whelming forces, our troops retired slowly. 

At this moment, seeing their adversary retire, the most vocif¬ 
erous cheers arose along the whole Yankee line. They were 


334 


THE FIE ST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


taken up in the distance by the masses which for miles and 
miles beyond were supporting McClellan’s front. It w T as a 
moment when the heart of the stoutest commander might have 
been appalled. The situation of our forces was now as desper¬ 
ate as it well could he, and required a courage and presence of 
mind to retrieve it, which the circumstances which surrounded 
them were not well calculated to inspire. They had fought for 
five ( r six hours without reinforcements. All our reserves had 
been brought up in the action. Wilcox’s brigade, which had 
been almost annihilated, was re-forming in the rear. 

Riding rapidly to the position of this brigade, Gen. Hill 
brought them, by great exertions, up to the front, to check the 
advance of the now confident, cheering enemy. Catching the 
spirit of their commander, the brave, but jaded men, moved up 
to the front, replying to the enemy’s cheers with shouts and 
yells. At this demonstration, which the enemy, no doubt, 
supposed signified heavy reinforcements, he stopped his ad 
vance. It was now about half-past ten o’clock in the night. 
The enemy had been arrested; and the fight—one of the most 
remarkable, long-contested, and gallant ones that had yet oc¬ 
curred on our lines—was concluded with the achievement of a 
field under the most trying circumstanoes, which the enemy, 
with the most overpowering numbers brought up to reinforce 
him, had not succeeded in reclaiming. 

Gen. Magruder’s division did not come up until 11 o’clock 
at night, after the fight had been concluded. By orders from 
Gen. Lee, Magruder moved upon and occupied the battle¬ 
ground; Gen. Hill’s command being in such a condition of 
prostration from their long and toilsome fight, and suffering in 
killed and wounded, that it was proper they should be relieved 
by the occupation of the battle-ground by a fresh corps d'armee. 

Early on Tuesday morning the enemy, from the position to 
which he had been driven the night before, continued his 
retreat in a southeasterly direction towards his gunboats on 
James river. At eight o’clock Magruder recommenced the 
pursuit, advancing cautiously, but steadily, and shelling the 
forests and swamps in front as he progressed. This method of 
advance was kept up throughout the morning and until four 
o’clock, p. m., without coming up with the enemy. But be¬ 
tween four and five o’clock our troops reached a large open 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


335 


field, a mile long and three-quarters in width, on the farm of 
Dr. Carter. The enemy were discovered strongly intrenched 
in a dense forest on the other side of this field. Their artillery, 
numbering fifty pieces, could be plainly seen bristling over 
their freshly constructed earth-works. At ten minutes before 
five o’clock, p. m., Gen. Magruder ordered his men to charge 
across the field and drive the enemy from their position. Gal¬ 
lantly they sprang to the encounter, rushing into the fiel i at 
a full run. Instantly, from the line of the enemy’s breastworks, 
a murderous storm of grape and canister was hurled into their 
ranks, with the most terrible effect. Officers and men went 
down by hundreds; but yet, undaunted and unwavering, our 
line dashed on, until two-thirds of the distance across the field 
was accomplished. Here the carnage from the withering fire 
of the enemy’s combined artillery and musketry was dreadful. 
Our line wavered a moment, and fell back to the cover of the 
woods. Twice again the effort to carry the position was re¬ 
newed, but each time with the same result. Night, at length, 
rendered a further attempt injudicious, and the fight, until ten 
o’clock, was kept up by the artillery of both sides. To add 
to the horrors, if not to the dangers, of this battle, the enemy’s 
gunboats, from their position at Curl’s Neck, two and a half 
miles distant, poured on the field continuous broadsides from 
their immense rifle-guns. Though it is questionable whether 
any serious loss was inflicted on us by the gunboats, the hor¬ 
rors of the fight were aggravated by the monster shells, which 
tore shrieking through the forests, and exploded with a con¬ 
cussion which seemed to shake the solid earth itself. 

The battle of Tuesday, properly known as that of Malvern 
Hill, was perhaps the most sanguinary of the series of bloody 
conflicts which had taken place on the lines about Richmond. 
It was made memorable by its melancholy monument of car¬ 
nage. But it had given the enemy no advantage, except in the 
unfruitful sacrifice of the lives of our troops, and the line of his 
retreat was again taken up, his forces toiling towards the river 
through mud, swamp, and forest. 

The skill and spirit with which McClellan had managed to 
retreat was, indeed, remarkable, and afforded no mean proofs 
of his generalship. At every stage of his retreat he had con¬ 
fronted our forces with a strong rear-guard, and had encountered 


336 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


hs with well-organized lines of battle, and regular dispo¬ 
sitions of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. His heavy rifled 
cannon had been used against us constantly on his retreat. A 
portion of his forces had now effected communication with the 
river at points below City Point. The plan of cutting off his 
communication with the river, which was to have been exe¬ 
cuted by a movement of Holmes’ division between him and 
the river, was frustrated by the severe fire of the gunboats, 
and since then the situation of the enemy appeared to be that 
of a division or dispersion of his forces, one portion resting 
on the river, and the other, to some extent, involved by our 
lines. 

It had been stated to the public of Richmond, with great 
precision of detail, that on the evening of Saturday, the 28th 
of June, we had brought the enemy to bay on the south side of 
the Cliickahominy, and that it only remained to finish him in 
a single battle. Such, in fact, appeared to have been the 
situation then. The next morning, however, it was perceived 
that our supposed resources of generalship had given us too 
much confidence; that the enemy had managed to extricate 
himself from the critical position, and, having massed his forces, 
had succeeded, under cover of the night, in opening a way to 
the James river.* 


* A great deal was claimed for “ generalship” in the battles around Rich¬ 
mond ; and results achieved by the hardy valor of our troops were busily 
ascribed by hollow-hearted flatterers to the genius of the strategist. Without 
going into any thing like military criticism, it may be said that it is diflicult 
to appreciate the ascription of a victory to generalship, in the face of the 
exposure and terrible slaughter of our troops in attacking, in front, the 
formidable breastworks of the enemy. The benefit of “ generalship” in such 
circumstances is ^inappreciable: when troops are thus confronted, the honors 
of victory belong rather to the spirit of the victors than the genius of the 
commander. 

With reference to McClellan’s escape from White Oak Swamp to the river, 
letters of lankee oflicers, published in the Northern journals, stated that 
when McClellan on Saturday evening sent his scouts down the road to Turkey 
Island Bridge, he was astonished and delighted to find that our forces had not 
occupied that road, and immediately started his wagon and artillery trains, 
which were quietly passing down that road all night to the James river, 
while our forces were quietly sleeping within four miles of the very road they 
should have occupied, and should have captured every one of the enemy’s one 
thousand wagons, and four hundred cannon. 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


337 


Upon this untoward event, the operations of our army on the 
Richmond side of the Chickahominy were to follow the fugitive 
enemy through a country where he had admirable opportuni¬ 
ties of concealment, and through the swamps and forests of 
which he had retreated with the most remarkable judgment, 
dexterity, and spirit of fortitude. 

The glory and fruits of our victory may have been seriously 
diminished by the grave mishap or fault by which the enemy 
was permitted to leave his camp on the south side of the 
Chickahominy, in an open country, and to plunge into the 
dense cover of wood and swamp, where the best portion of a 
whole week was consumed in hunting him, and finding out his 
new position only in time to attack him under the uncertainty 
and disadvantage of the darkness of night. 

But the successes achieved in the series of engagements 
which had already occurred were not to be lightly esteemed, 
or to be depreciated, because of errors which, if they had not 
occurred, would have made our victory more glorious and more 
complete. The siege of Richmond had been raised : an army 
of one hundred and twenty thousand men had been pushed 
from their strongholds and fortifications, and put to flight; we 
had enjoyed the eclat of an almost daily succession of victories; 
we had gathered an immense spoil in stores, provisions, and 
artillery; and we had demoralized and dispersed, if we had not 
succeeded in annihilating, an army which had every resource 
that could be summoned to its assistance, every possible ad¬ 
dition of numbers within the reach of the Yankee government, 
and every material condition of success to insure for it the 
great prize of the capital of the Confederacy, which is now, as 
far as human judgment can determine, irretrievably lost to 
them, and secure in the protection of a victorious army. 

The Northern papers claimed that the movements of McClel¬ 
lan from the Chickahominy river were purely strategic, and 
that he had obtained a position, where he would establish a new 


It is further stated in these letters, that if we had blocked up that only 
passage of escape, their entire army must have surrendered or been starved 
out in twenty-four hours. These are the Yankees’ own accounts of how much 
they were indebted to blunders on our part for the success of McClellan’s 
retreat—a kind of admission not popular with a vain and self-adulator 0 
enemy. 



338 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


base of operations against Richmond. Up to the first decisive 
stage in the series of engagements—Coal Harbor—there were 
certainly plain strategic designs in his backward movement. 
His retirement from Meelianicsville was probably voluntary, 
and intended to concentrate his troops lower down, where he 
might fight with the advantages of numbers and his own 
selection of position. Continuing his retreat, he fixed the 
decisive field at Coal Harbor. Again having been pushed 
from his strongholds north of the Chickahominy, the enemy 
made a strong attempt to retrieve his disasters by renewing a 
concentration of his troops at Frazier’s farm. 

From the time of these two principal battles, all pretensions 
of the enemy’s retreat to strategy must cease. His retreat was 
now unmistakable; it was no longer a falling back to concen¬ 
trate troops for action; it is, in fact, impossible to disguise that 
it was the retreat of an enemy who was discomfited and whip¬ 
ped, although not routed. He had abandoned the railroads; 
he had given up the strongholds which he had provided to 
secure him in case of a check’; he had destroyed from eight to 
ten millions dollars’ worth of stores; he had deserted his 
hospitals, his sick and wounded, and he had left in our hands 
thousands of prisoners, and innumerable stragglers. 

Regarding all that had been accomplished in these battles ; 
the displays of the valor and devotion of our troops; the ex¬ 
penditure of blood ; and the helpless and fugitive condition to 
which the enemy had at last been reduced, there was cause for 
the keenest regrets that an enemy in this condition was per¬ 
mitted to secure his retreat. It is undoubtedly true, that in 
failing to cut off McClellan’s retreat to the river, we failed to 
accomplish the most important condition for the completion of 
our victory. But although the result of the conflict had fallen 
below public expectation, it was sufficiently fortunate to excite 
popular joy, and grave enough to engage the most serious 
speculation as to the future. 

The effect of the defeat of McClellan before Richmond was 
received at the North with ill-concealed mortification and 
anxiety. Beneath the bluster of the newspapers and the af¬ 
fectations of public confidence, disappointment, embarrassment, 
and alarm were perceptible. The people of the North had 
been so assured of the capture of Richmond, that it was diffi- 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


339 


cult to reanimate tliem on the heels of McClellan’s retreat. 
The prospects held out to them so long, of ending the war in 
“ sixty days,” “ crushing out the rebellion,” and eating victo¬ 
rious dinners in Richmond, had been bitterly disappointed and 
were not to be easily renewed. The government at Washing¬ 
ton showed its appreciation of the disaster its arms had sus¬ 
tained by making a call for three hundred thousand additional 
troops ; and the people of the North were urged by every vari¬ 
ety of appeal, including large bounties of money, to respond 
to the stirring call of President Lincoln. 

There is no doubt but that the North was seriously discour¬ 
aged by the events that had taken place before Richmond. 
But it was a remarkable circumstance, uniformly illustrated in 
the war, that the North, though easily intoxicated by triumph, 
was not in the same proportion depressed by defeat. There is' 
an obvious explanation for this peculiarity of temper. As long 
as the North was conducting the war upon the soil of the South, 
a defeat there involved more money expenditure and more calls 
for troops ; it involved scarcely any thing else ; it had no other 
horrors, it did not imperil their homes; it might easily be re¬ 
paired by time. Indeed, there was some sense in the exhorta¬ 
tions of some of the Northern orators, to the effect that defeat 
made their people stronger than ever, because, while it required 
them to put forth their energies anew, it enabled them to take 
advantage of experience, to multiply their means of success, 
and to essay new plans of campaign. No one can doubt but 
that the celebrated Manassas defeat really strengthened the 
North ; and doubtless the South would have realized the same 
consequence of the second repulse of the enemy’s movements 
on Richmond, if it had been attended by the same conditions 
on our part of inaction and repose. 

In his congratulatory address to the army on their victory 
before Richmond, President Davis referred to the prospect of 
carrying the war into the North. His friends declared that 
the President had at last been converted from his darling mili¬ 
tary formulas of the defensive policy; that he was sensible that 
the only way to bring the war to a decisive point was to invade 
the North. But it was urged that our army was too feeble to 
undertake at present an aggressive policy; although the facts 
were that, counting in our immense forces under Gen. Bragg 


340 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


in tlie West, which for months had been idly lying in Missis¬ 
sippi, we had probably quite as many troops in the field as the 
North had; that delay could accomplish but little addition to 
our forces, while it would multiply those of the North, its 
resources of conscription and draft being intact; that if our 
army was small, it was due to the neglect of the executive in 
enforcing the Conscription Law, which should have furnished 
three quarters of a million of men; and that if reduced and 
demoralized by desertion and straggling, it was because of the 
weak sentimentalism of our military authorities, which hesi¬ 
tated to enforce the death penalty in our armies, or to maintain 
military discipline by a system much harsher than that of 
moral suasion. Judgment must be taken subject to these facts 
as to how far the government was responsible for lingering in 
a policy which, though of its own choosing at first, it at last 
confessed to be wrong, and from which, when discovered to be 
an error and a failure, it professed to be unable to extricate 
itself on account of a weakness of which itself was sole cause 
and author. Happily, however, the valor and devotion of our 
troops came to the rescue of the government, and opened a 
way in which it had so long hesitated, and found paltry excuses 
for its tame and unadventurous temper. But to this we shall 
refer hereafter. 

It is curious to observe how completely the ordinary aspects 
of war were changed and its horrors diminished, with refer¬ 
ence to the North, by the false policy of the South, in keeping 
the theatre of active hostilities within her own borders. Defeat 
did not dispirit the North, because it was not brought to her 
doors. Where it did not immediately imperil the safety of 
the country and homes of the Yankees, where it gave time for 
the recovery and reorganization of the attacking party, and 
where it required for the prosecution of the war nothing but 
more money jobs in Congress and a new raking up of the scum 
of the cities, the effects of defeat upon the North might well 
be calculated to be the exasperation of its passions, the inflam¬ 
mation of its cupidity, and the multiplication of its exertions 
to break and overcome the misapplied power of our armies. 

Indeed, the realization of the war in the North was, in many 
respects, nothing more than that of an immense money job. 
The large money expenditure at Washington supplied a vast 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


341 


fund of corruption ; it enriched the commercial centres of the 
North, and by artificial stimulation preserved such cities as 
New York from decay; it interested vast numbers of politi¬ 
cians, contractors, and dissolute public men in continuing the 
war and enlarging the scale of its operations; and, indeed, the 
disposition to make money out of the war accounts for much 
of that zeal in the North, which was mistaken for political ar¬ 
dor or the temper of patriotic devotion * 


* The following is an extract from an unpublished letter from Gen. Wash¬ 
ington to Richard Henry Lee, and, as an exposition of the character of the 
Northern people from a pen sacred to posterity, is deeply interesting. There 
can be no doubt of the authenticity of the letter. It has been preserved in 
the Lee family, who, though applied to by Bancroft, Irving, and others for a 
copy for publication, have hitherto refused it, on the ground that it would be 
improper to give to the world a private letter from the Father of his Country 
reflecting upon any portion of it while the old Union endured. But now, that 
“ these people” have trampled the Constitution under foot, destroyed the gov¬ 
ernment of our fathers, and invaded and desolated Washington’s own county 
in Virginia, there can be no impropriety in showing his private opinion of the 
Massachusetts Yankees: 

[Copy.] 

Camp at Cambridge, Aug. 29,1775. 

Dear Sir: * * * 

As we have now nearly completed our lines of defence, we have nothing 
more, in my opinion, to fear from the enemy, provided we can keep our men 
to their duty, and make them watchful and vigilant; but it is among the most 
difficult tasks I ever undertook in my life to induce these people to believe 
that there is or can be danger, till the bayonet is pushed at their breasts ; not 
that it proceeds from any uncommon prowess, but rather from an unaccount¬ 
able kind of stupidity in the lower class of these people, which, believe me, 
prevails but too generally among the officers of the Massachusetts part of the 
army, who are nearly of the same kidney with the privates, and adds not a 
little to my difficulties, as there is no such thing as getting officers of this 
stamp to exert themselves in carrying orders into execution. To curry favor 
with the men (by whom they were chosen, and on whose smiles possibly they 
may think they may again rely) seems to be one of the principal objects of 
their attention. I submit it, therefore, to your consideration, whether there 
is, or is not, a propriety in that resolution of the Congress which leaves the 
ultimate appointment of all officers below the rank of general to the govern¬ 
ments where the regiments originated, now the army is become Continental ? 
To me, it appears improper in two points of view—first, it is giving that 
power and weight to an individual Colony which ought of right to belong to 
the whole. Then it damps the spirit and ardor of volunteers from all but 
the four New England Governments, as none but their people have the least 
chance of getting into office. Would it not be better, therefore, to have the 
warrants, which the Commander-in-Chief is authorized to give pro tempore , 




342 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


But while politicians plundered the government at Washing 
ton and contractors grew rich in a single day, and a fictitious 
prosperity dazzled the eyes of the observer in the cities of the 
North, the public finances of the Yankee government had long 
ago become desperate. It is interesting at this point to make 
a brief summary of the financial condition of the North by a 
comparison of its public debt with the assets of the govern¬ 
ment. 

The debt of the present United States, audited and float¬ 
ing, calculated from data up to June 30, 1862, was at least 
$1,300,000,000. The daily expenses, as admitted by the chair¬ 
man of the Committee on Ways and Means, was between three 
and four millions of dollars; the debt, in one year from this 
time, could not be less than two thousand five hundred millions 
of dollars. 

Under the census of 1860, all the property of every kind in 
all the States was estimated at less than $ 12,500,000,000. Since 


approved or disapproved by the Continental Congress, or a committee of their 
body, which I should suppose in any long recess must always sit ? In this 
case, every gentleman will stand an 6qual chance of being promoted, accord¬ 
ing to his merit: in the other, all offices will be confined to the inhabitants of 
the four New England Governments, which, in my opinion, is impolitic to a 
degree. I have made a pretty good slam among such kind of officers as the 
Massachusetts Government abounds in since I came to this camp, having 
broken one colonel and two captains for cowardly behavior in the action on 
Bunker’s Hill, two captains for drawing more provisions and pay than they 
had men in their company, and one for being absent from his post when the 
enemy appeared there and burnt a house just by it. Besides these, I have at 
this time one colonel, one major, one captain, and two subalterns under arrest 
for trial. In short, I spare none, and yet fear it will not all do, as these peo¬ 
ple seem to be too inattentive to every thing but their interest. 

********* 

There have been so many great and capital errors and abuses to rectify—so 
many examples to make, and so little inclination in the officers of inferior 
rank to contribute their aid to accomplish this work, that my life has been 
nothing else (since I came here) but one continual round of vexation and 
fatigue. In short, no pecuniary recompense could induce me to undergo what 
I have; especially, as I expect, by showing so little countenance to irregular¬ 
ities and public abuses as to render myself very obnoxious to a great part of 
these people. But as I have already greatly exceeded the bounds of a letter 
I will not trouble you with matters relative to my feelings. 

Your affectionate friend and obedient servant, 

(Signed) GEO. WASHINGTON. 


Richard Henry Lee, Esq. 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


843 


tlie war commenced, the depreciation has been at least one- 
fourth, $3,175,000,000. From $9,375,000,000 deduct the prop¬ 
erty in the seceded States, at least one-third—$3,125,000,000; 
leaving in the present United States, $6,250,000,000. 

It will thus be seen, that the present debt of the North is 
one-fifth of all the property of every kind it possesses; and in 
one year more it will be more than one-third. No people on 
earth has ever been plunged in so large a debt in so short a 
time. No government in existence has so large a debt in pro¬ 
portion to the amount of property held by its people. 

In continuing the narrative of the campaign in Virginia, we 
shall have to observe the remarkable exasperation with which 
the North re-entered upon this campaign, and to notice many 
deeds of blackness which illustrated the temper in which she 
determined to prosecute the desperate fortunes of the war. 
The military authorities of the North seemed to suppose that 
better success would attend a savage war, in which no quarter 
was to be given and no age or sex spared, than had hitherto 
been secured to such hostilities as are alone recognized to be 
lawful by civilized men in modern times. It is not necessary 
to comment at length upon this "fallacy. Brutality in war was 
mistaken for vigor. War is not emasculated by the observ¬ 
ances of civilization; its vigor and success consist in the re¬ 
sources of generalship, the courage of troops, the moral ardors 
of its cause. To attempt to make up for deficiency in these 
great and noble elements of vigor by mere brutal severities— 
such as pillage, assassination, &c., is absurd ; it reduces the idea 
of war to the standard of the brigand; it offends the moral 
sentiment of the world, and it excites its enemy to the last 
stretch of determined and desperate exertion. 

The North had placed a second army of occupation of Vir¬ 
ginia under command of Gen. Pope, who boasted that he was 
fresh from a campaign in the West, where he had “seen only 
the backs of rebels.* This brutal braggart threatened that fire, 

* This notorious Yankee commander, Major-general John Pope, was a man 
nearly forty years of age, a native of Kentucky, but a citizen of Illinois. He 
was born of respectable parents. He was graduated at West Point in 1842, 
and served in the Mexican war, where he was brevetted a captain. 

In 1849, he conducted the Minnesota exploring expedition, and afterwards 
acted as topographical engineer of New Mexico, until 1853, when he was as- 



344 


THE FIE ST YEAE OF THE WAR. 


famine, and slaughter should he the portions of the conquered. 
He declared that he would not place any guard over any private 
property, and invited the soldiers to pillage and murder. He 
issued a general order, directing the murder of peaceful in¬ 
habitants of Virginia as spies if found quietly tilling their 
farms in his rear, even outside of his lines; and one of his 
brigadier-generals, Steinwehr, seized upon innocent and peace¬ 
ful inhabitants to be held as hostages, to the end that they 
might be murdered in cold blood, if any of his soldiers were 
killed by some unknown persons, whom he designated as “ bush- 
wackers.” 

signed to the command of one of the expeditions to survey the route of the 
Pacific railroad. He distinguished himself on the overland route to the Pacific 
by “ sinking” artesian wells and government money to the amount of a mil¬ 
lion of dollars. One well was finally abandoned incomplete, and afterwards 
a perennial spring was found by other parties in the immediate vicinity. In 
a letter to Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, urging this route to the 
Pacific and the boring these wells, Pope made himself the especial champion 
of the South. 

On the breaking out of the war, Pope was made a brigadier-general of 
volunteers. He held a command in Missouri for some time before he became 
particularly noted. "When General Halleck took charge of the disorganized 
department, Pope was placed in command of the District of Central Missouri. 
He was afterwards sent to southeastern Missouri. The cruel disposition of 
the man, of which his rude manners and a vulgar bearded face, with coarse 
skin, gave indications, found an abundant field for gratification in this un¬ 
happy State. His proceedings in Missouri will challenge a comparison with 
the most infernal record ever bequeathed by the licensed murderer to the ab¬ 
horrence of mankind. And yet it was his first step in blood, the first oppor¬ 
tunity he had ever had to feast his eyes upon slaughter and regale his ears 
with the cries of human agony. 

Having been promoted to the rank of major-general, Pope was next appoint¬ 
ed to act at the head of a corps to co-operate with Halleck in the reduction of 
Corinth. After the evacuation of Corinth by General Beauregard, Pope was 
sent by Halleck to annoy the rear of the Confederate army, but Beauregard 
turned upon and repulsed his pursuit. The report of Pope to Halleck, that 
he had captured 10,000 of Beauregard’s army, and 15,000 stand of arms, when 
he had not taken a man or a musket, stands alone in the history of lying. 
It left him without a rival in that respectable art. 

Such was the man who took command of the enemy’s forces in northern 
Virginia. His bluster was as excessive as his accomplishments in falsehood. 
He was described in a Southern newspaper as “ a Yankee compound of Bob- 
adil and Munchausen.” His proclamation, that he had seen nothing of his 
enemies “but their backs,” revived an ugly story in his private life, and gave 
occasion to the witty interrogatory, if the gentleman who cowhided him for 
offering an indignity to a lady, was standing with his back to him when he in- 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


345 


The people of the North were delighted with the brigandish 
pronuneiamentos of Pope in Virginia. The government at 
Washington was not slow to gratify the popular passion ; it 
hastened to change the character of the war into a campaign 
of indiscriminate robbery and murder. A general order was 
issued by the Secretary of War, directing the military com¬ 
manders of the North to take private property for the conve¬ 
nience and use of their armies, without compensation. The 
public and official expressions of the spirit of the North in the 
war were even more violent than the clamors of the mob. The 
abolitionists had at last succeeded in usurping complete con¬ 
trol of the government at Washington, and in imparting to 
the war the unholy zeal of their fanaticism. Nine-tenths of 
the legislation of the Yankee Congress had been occupied in 
some form or other with the question of slavery. Universal 
emancipation in the South, and the utter overthrow of all 
property, was now the declared policy of the desperate and 
demented leaders of the war. The Confiscation Bill, enacted 
at the close of the session of Congress, confiscated all the slaves 
belonging to those who were loyal to the South, constituting 
nine-tenths at least of the slaves in the Confederate States. In 
the Border States occupied by the North, slavery was plainly 
doomed under a plan of emancipation proposed by Mr. Lincoln 
with the flimsy and ridiculous pretence of compensation to 
slaveholders.* * Other violent acts of legislation were passed 


flicted the chastisement. The fact was, that Pope had won his baton of mar 
shal by bragging to the Yankee fill. He was another instance, besides that 
of Butler, of the manufacture of military reputation in the North by cowardly 
bluster and acts of coarse cruelty to the defenceless. 


* According to the census of 1860— 

Kentucky had. 225,490 slaves. 

Maryland. 87,188 

Virginia. 490,887 

Delaware. 1,798 “ 

Missouri. 114,965 “ 

Tennessee. 275,784 “ 


Making in the whole.1,196,112 

At the proposed rate of valuation, these would amount to $358,833,600 
Add for deportation and colonization $100 each, 119,244,533 


And we have the enormous sum of $478,078,133 














346 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


with the intention to envenom the war, to insult and torture 
the South, to suppress the freedom of public opinion in the 
North, and to keep the government in the hands of the fanatics 
and crusaders of Abolitionism. Disaffection was threatened 
with a long list of Draconian penalties. The political scaffold 
was to be erected in the North, while the insatiate and un¬ 
bridled fury of its army was to sweep over the South. “ Re¬ 
bellion” was to be punished by a warfare of savages, and the 
devilish, skulking revenge, that pillages, burns, and assass¬ 
inates, was to follow in the bloody footsteps of the invading 
armies. 

To this enormous mass of brutality and lawlessness, the Con¬ 
federate States government made but a feeble response. It 
proposed a plan of retaliation, the execution of which was 
limited to the commissioned officers of the army of Gen. Pope ; 
which, by declaring impunity to private soldiers, encouraged 
their excesses ; and which, in omitting any application to the 
army of Butler in New Orleans, who had laughed at female 
virtue in the conquered districts of the South, and murdered a 
citizen of the South for disrespect to the Yankee bunting,* * was 
lamentably weak and imperfect. The fact was, that the gov- 

It is scarcely to be supposed tbat a proposition could be made in good faith, 
or that in any event the proposition could be otherwise than worthless, to add 
this vast amount to the public debt of the North at a moment w’hen the 
treasury was reeling under the enormous expenditures of tlie war. 

* The act for which William B. Mumford "was executed by Butler, was 
taking down the Yankee ensign from the Mint in that city on the 24tli of 
April. This act of Mumford was committed before the city of New Orleans 
had surrendered. Indeed, the flag was hoisted in the city while negotiations 
were being conducted between the commander of the Yankee fleet and the 
authorities; and under these circumstances the raising of the enemy’s flag 
was a plain violation of the rules and amenities of war, and an outrage on the 
authorities and people of the city. Taking the harshest rule of construction, 
the act of Mumford, having been committed before the city of New Orleans 
had surrendered, was nothing more than an act of war, for which he was no 
more responsible than as a prisoner of war. 

The unhappy man was hung in the open day by order of the Federal tyrant 
of New Orleans. The brutal sentence of death on the gallows was carried 
into effect in the presence of thousands of spectators. The crowd looked on^ 
scarcely believing their senses, unwilling to think that even such a tyrant as 
Butler could really have the heart for such a wanton murder of a citizen of 
the Confederate States, and hoping every moment for a reprieve or a pardon ; 
but none came, and the soul of the martyr was ushered by violent hands into 
the presence of its God. 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


347 


ernment of President Davis had been weakly swindled in its 
military negotiation with the North. It was persuaded to sign 
a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, in which it made a pres¬ 
ent to its enemy of a surplus of about six thousand prisoners; 
and its weak generosity was immediately rewarded, not only 
by the barbarous orders of Pope, which were issued just at the 
time the cartel was signed, but by the practical proclamation 
in all the invaded districts of the South of the policy of the 
seizure and imprisonment of unarmed inhabitants. Our gov¬ 
ernment had left out of the recent cartel any provisions for 
private citizens kidnapped by the enemy; it had left the 
North in the undisturbed enjoyment, in many places, of the 
privilege it claimed of capturing in our country as many polit¬ 
ical prisoners as it pleased ; and it had, to a considerable ex¬ 
tent, practically abandoned the protection of its own citizens. 

Before the eyes of Europe the mask of civilization had been 
taken from the Yankee war; it degenerated into unbridled 
butchery and robbery. But the nations of Europe, which 
boasted themselves as humane and civilized, had yet no inter¬ 
ference to offer in a war which shocked the senses and appealed 
to the common offices of humanity. It is to be observed, that 
during the entire continuance of the war up to this time, the 
British government had acted with reference to it in a spirit 
of selfish and inhuman calculation; and there is, indeed, but 
little doubt that an early recognition of the Confederacy by 
France was thwarted by the interference of that cold and 
sinister government, that ever pursues its ends by indirection, 
and perfects its hypocrisy under the specious cloak of extreme 
conscientiousness. No greater delusion could have possessed 
the people of the South than that the government of England 
was friendly to them. That government, which prided itself 
on its cold and ingenious selfishness, seemed to have discovered 
a much larger source of profit in the continuation of the Ameri¬ 
can war, than it could possibly derive from a pacification of the 
contest. It was willing to see its operatives starving, and to 
endure the distress of a “cotton famine,”* that it might have 


* Great pains were taken alike by the Yankee and the English press to 
conceal the distress caused in the manufacturing districts of Europe by the 
withholding of Southern cotton; and the specious fallacy was being con- 

23 




348 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


the ultimate satisfaction, which it anticipated, of seeing both 
parties in the American war brought to the point of exhaustion, 
and its own greatness enlarged on the ruins of a hated com¬ 
mercial rival. The calculation was far-reaching ; it was char¬ 
acteristic of a government that secretly laughed at all senti¬ 
ment, made an exact science of selfishness, and scorned the 
weakness that would sacrifice for any present good the larger 
fruits of the future. 

In the regular continuation of our historical narrative, in 
which much that has been said here by way of general reflec¬ 
tion will be replaced by the record of particular facts, and 
special comments upon them, we shall have occasion before 


stantly put forward that the cotton product in the colonial dominions of 
Great Britain and elsewhere was being rapidly stimulated and enlarged; that 
it would go far towards relieving the necessities of Europe ; and that one ef¬ 
fect of the American war would be to free England from her long and galling 
dependence on the Slave States of the South for the chief article of her manu¬ 
facturing industry. 

The proofs in reply to the latter fallacy and falsehood are striking and un¬ 
answerable. The shipments of cotton from the British colonies, Egypt, Brazil, 
&c., are actually falling off, and were much less this last summer than for a 
corresponding period of the year before. The evidence of this fact is furnished 
in the cotton circulars of Manchester. 

India seems to have been cleared out by the large shipments of last year, 
and the shipments to Europe, from the first of January to the last week in 
May, showed a decrease of 100,000 bales ; the figures being 251,000 bales 
against 351,000 last year. From the large proportional consumption of Surat 
cotton, the stock at Liverpool of this description, which, on the 1st of January 
last, stood at 295,000 bales against 130,000 last year, was, about the close of 
May, reduced to 170,000 against 133,000 last year; while in the quantity 
afloat the figures were still more unfavorable, viz.: 184,000 bales against 
258,000. 

The downward progress of the stock of American cotton is illustrated 
roughly by the following quarterly table prepared from the Manchester 
circulars: 


In American ports. 

Afloat and at Liverpool. 

March, 1861. 

. 918,000 

June. 

100,000 

971,000 


1,668,000 

1,071,000 

In American ports.. . 

Afloat and at Liverpool. 

March, 1862. 

.. 30,000 

. 160,000 

May. 

20,000 

108,000 


193,000 

128,000 











THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


349 


tracing the active prosecution of the campaign in Virginia, to 
direct the attention of the reader to the progress of events in 
the West. 

We shall find many remarkable events to record in this 
direction. We shall see how it was that the evacuation of 
Corinth was determined upon ; that the retreat was conducted 
with great order and precision; and that, despite the boasts of 
the North to the contrary, we lost no more prisoners than the 
enemy did himself, and abandoned to him in stores not more 
than would amount to one day’s expense of our army. 

We shall find in the defence of Vicksburg a splendid lesson 
of magnanimity and disinterested patriotism. We shall see 
how for several weeks this city resisted successfully the attack 
of the enemy’s gimboats, mortar fleets, and heavy siege-guns; 
how it was threatened by powerful fleets above and below, and 
with what unexampled spirit the Queen City of the Bluffs sus¬ 
tained the iron storm that was rained upon her for weeks with 
continued fury. 

New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Memphis were in 
the hands of the Yankees, and their possession by the enemy 
might have furnished to Vicksburg, in its exposed and des¬ 
perate situation, the usual excuses of timidity and selfishness 
for its surrender. But the brave city resisted these vile and 
unmanly excuses, and gave to the world one of the proudest 
and most brilliant illustrations of the earnestness and devotion 
of the people of the South that had yet adorned the war. 

The fact that but little hopes could be entertained of the 
eventual success of the defence of Vicksburg against the pow¬ 
erful concentration of the enemy’s navy, heightened the no¬ 
bility of the resistance she made. The resistance of an enemy 
in circumstances which afford but a feeble and uncertain pros¬ 
pect of victory, requires a great spirit; but it is more invalu¬ 
able to us than a hundred easy victories; it teaches the enemy 
that we are invincible, and overcomes him with despair; it 
exhibits to the world the inspirations and moral grandeur, of 
our cause ; and it educates our people in chivalry and warlike 
virtues by the force of illustrious examples of self-devotion. 

We shall have, however, the satisfaction of recording an 
unexpected issue of victory in the siege of Vicksburg, and 
have occasion to point to another lesson that the history of all 


350 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


wars indicates, that the practical test of resistance affords the 
only sure determination whether a place is defensible or not. 
With a feeling of inexpressible pride did Yicksburg behold two 
immense fleets, each of which had been heretofore invincible, 
brought to bay, and, unable to cope with her, kept at a re¬ 
spectable distance, and compelled to essay the extraordinary 
task of digging a new channel for the Mississippi. 

In following the track of detachments of our forces in the 
West, we shall refer to the brilliant movements across the 
Mississippi that drove the enemy from Arkansas, and harassed 
him on the Missouri border with ceaseless activity, and to the 
dashing expedition of the celebrated John Morgan into Ken¬ 
tucky. We shall see that the expedition of this cavalier was 
one of the most brilliant, rapid, and successful raids recorded 
in history. He left Tennessee with a thousand men, only a 
portion of whom were armed; penetrated two hundred and 
fifty miles into a country in full possession of the Yankees; 
captured a dozen towns and cities; met, fought, and captured 
a Yankee force superior to his own in numbers ; captured three 
thousand stand of arms at Lebanon; and, from first to last, 
destroyed during his raid, military stores, railroad bridges, and 
other property to the value of eight or ten millions of dollars. 
He accomplished all this, besides putting the people of Cincin¬ 
nati into a condition, described by one of their newspapers, as 
“ bordering on frenzy,” and returned to Tennessee with a 
loss in all his engagements of fifteen men killed, and forty 
wounded. 

While some activity was shown in extreme portions of the 
West, we shall see that our military operations from Green¬ 
brier county, Virginia, all the way down to Chattanooga, Ten¬ 
nessee, were conducted with but little vigor. On the bounda¬ 
ries of East Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and Kentucky, 
we had a force in the aggregate of thirty thousand men, con¬ 
fronted by probably not half their number of Yankee troops; 
yet the southwestern counties of Virginia, and the valley of 
the Clinch, in Tennessee, were entered and mercilessly plun¬ 
dered by the enemy in the face of our troops. 

Turning for a moment from the military events of this 
period, we shall notice the reassembling of the Confederate 
Congress on the 18tli of August, 1862. We shall then find 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


351 


occasion to review the conduct of this branch of the govern¬ 
ment, and to observe how it fell below the spirit and virtue of 
the people; what servility to the Executive it displayed, and 
what a singular destitution of talents and ability was remark¬ 
able in this body. Not a single speech that has yet been made 
in it will live. It is true, that the regular Congress elected by 
the people was an improvement upon the ignorant and unsa¬ 
vory body known as the Provisional Congress, which was the 
creature of conventions, and which was disgraced in the char¬ 
acter of some of its members; among whom were conspicuous, 
corrupt and senile politicians from Virginia, who had done all 
they could to sacrifice and disgrace their State, who had 
toadied in “ society,” as well as in politics, to notabilities of 
New England, and who had taken a prominent part in emas¬ 
culating, and, in fact, annulling the Sequestration Law, in order 
to save the property of relatives who had sided with the North 
against the land that had borne them and honored their fathers. 

But the regular Congress, although it had no taint of dis¬ 
loyalty or Yankee toadyism in it, was a weak, sycophantic, and 
trifling body. It has made no mark in the history of the gov¬ 
ernment ; it was utterly destitute of originality. Its measures 
were those which were recommended by the Executive or sug¬ 
gested by the newspapers. It produced no great financial 
measure; it made not one stroke of statesmanship; it uttered 
not a single fiery appeal to the popular heart, such as is cus¬ 
tomary in revolutions. The most of the little ability it had 
was eaten up by servility to the Executive; and the ignorance 
of the majority was illustrated by a trifling and undignified 
style of legislation, in which whole days were consumed with 
paltry questions, and the greatest measures—such as the Con¬ 
script Law*—embarrassed by demagogical speeches made for 
home effect. 


* The execution of the Conscript Law was resisted by Governor Brown, of 
Georgia. The correspondence between him and the President on this subject, 
which was printed and hawked in pamphlet-form through the country, is a 
curiosity. What will posterity think of a correspondence between such dig¬ 
nitaries, taking place at a time when the destinies of the country trembled in 
the balance, composed of about equal parts of hair-splitting and demagogue- 
ism, and illustrated copiously by Mr. Brown with citations from the Virginia 
and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, and exhumed opinions of members of the 



352 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


It is difficult, indeed, for a legislative body to preserve its 
independence, and to resist the tendency of the Executive to 
absorb power in a time of war, and this fact was well illus¬ 
trated by the Confederate Congress. One of the greatest 
political scholars of America, Mr. Madison, noticed this dan¬ 
ger in the political constitution of the country. He said :— 
“War is in fact the true nurse of Executive aggrandizement. 
In war a physical force is to be created, and it is the Execu¬ 
tive will which is to direct it. In war the public treasures 
are to be unlocked, and it is the Executive hand which is to 
dispense them. In war the honors and emoluments of office 
are to be multiplied, and it is the Executive patronage under 
which they are to be enjoyed. It is in war, finally, that laurels 
are to be gathered, and it is the Executive brow they are to 
encircle.” 

There was but little opposition in Congress to President 
Davis ; but there was some which took a direction to his Cab¬ 
inet, and this opposition was represented by Mr. Foote of Ten¬ 
nessee—a man of acknowledged ability and many virtues of 
character, who had re-entered upon the political stage after 
a public life, which, however it lacked in the cheap merit of 
partisan consistency, had been adorned by displays of won¬ 
derful intellect and great political genius. Mr. Foote was not 
a man to be deterred from speaking the truth \ his quickness 
to resentment and his chivalry, which, though somewhat 
Quixotic, was founded in the most noble and delicate sense 
of honor, made those who would have bullied or silenced a 
weaker person, stand in awe of him. A man of such tem¬ 
per was not likely to stint words in assailing an opponent; 
and his sharp declamations in Congress, his searching com¬ 
ments, and his great powers of sarcasm, used upon such men 
as Mallory, Benjamin, and Huger, were the only relief of the 
dulness of the Congress, and the only historical features of its 
debates. 


old Federal Convention of 1787? The display was characteristic of Southern 
politicians; in the most vital periods of the country’s destiny they had an eye 
to making political capital for themselves, and in the fierce tumults of a revo- 
lutaon refreshed the country with exhumations from the politicians of 1787 
and the usual amount of clap-trap about our “forefathers/’ and the old 
political system that had rotted over our heads. 





THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


353 


Returning to tlie history of the campaign in Virginia, we 
shall have occasion to enumerate another brilliant victory of 
our arms, achieved on that fortunate theatre of the war. We 
refer to the battle of Cedar Mountain. We shall find other 
topics to record in the events which, at the time of this wri¬ 
ting,' are developing themselves, and reaching to the most im¬ 
portant consequences, both in Virginia and Tennessee. We 
shall see how the great army which McClellan had brought 
for the reduction of Richmond, and in sight of the church 
steeples of that city, was compelled to retire towards the Poto¬ 
mac, with its proud columns shattered, humiliated, and de¬ 
moralized ; how Pope, who had entered Virginia with a splendid 
army and the most insolent boasts, was ignominiously whipped 
on more than one occasion, and with what agony of cowardice 
he sought safety for his retreat; how considerable portions of 
Virginia and Tennessee were surrendered to the jurisdiction 
of the Confederacy; how the enemy in various quarters was 
pushed back to his old lines; and how intelligent men in the 
South saw for the first time certain and unmistakable indica¬ 
tions of demoralization in the armies of the North, brought on 
by the remarkable train of victories in Virginia, extending from 
early June to September. 

In these events we shall find bright and flattering prospects 
renewed to the South. Much of these we shall find already 
realized in the events in the midst of which we write this im¬ 
perfect sketch. We shall trace the painful steps by which our 
worn troops advanced to meet another invading army in Vir¬ 
ginia, reinforced not only by the defeated army of McClellan, 
but by the fresh corps of Generals Burnside and Hunter. We 
shall tell what hardships were endured by our troops, and what 
exploits of valor were performed by them on this celebrated 
expedition; how they were compelled to toil their way wfith 
inadequate transportation; how they crossed streams swollen 
to unusual height, and bore all the fatigues and distresses of 
forced marches; how their spirit and endurance were tested by 
repeated combats with the enemy; how at last they succeeded 
in turning his position ; and how, having formed a junction of 
their columns in the face of greatly superior forces on the 
historic and blood-stained plains of Manassas, they achieved 
there the ever-memorable victory of the thirteenth of August, 


354 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


1862, the crowning triumph of their toil and valor. A nation’s 
gratitude is evoked to repay all that is due to the valor of our 
troops and the providence of Almighty God.* 

We do not trust ourselves to predict the consequences of cur¬ 
rent events ; and the brilliant story of Manassas, grouped with 
contemporary victories in the West, must be left to the decisions 
of the future—trusting as we do that we may have occasion to 
record in another volume the consequences as well as the de¬ 
tails of these events, and to find in the future the fulfilment of 
the promises of to-day. 

* * * * A few general reflections on the material and 

moral phenomena of the war will appropriately conclude our 
work for the present. 

It is a censurable practice to flatter the people. It is equally 


* The vulgar and unintelligent mind worships success. The extraordinary 
and happy train of victories in Virginia seems to have had no other signifi¬ 
cance or interest to a number of grovelling minds in the South, than as a 
contribution to the personal fame of General Lee, who by no fault of his own 
(for no one had more modesty, more Christian dignity of behavior, and a 
purer conversation), was followed by toadies, flatterers, and newspaper sneaks 
in epaulets, who made him ridiculous by their servile obeisances and excess 
of praise. The author does not worship success. He trusts, however, that 
he has intelligence enough to perceive merit, without being prompted by the 
vulgar cry ; he is sure that he has honesty and independence enough to ac¬ 
knowledge it where he believes it to exist. The estimation of General Lee, 
made in some preceding pages, was with reference to his unfortunate cam¬ 
paign in Western Virginia; it was founded on the events of that campaign, 
in which there is no doubt Gen. Lee blundered and showed an absurd mis¬ 
conception of mountain warfare; and so far as these events furnished evi¬ 
dence for the historian, the author believes that he was right, unprejudiced, 
and just in ascribing the failure of that campaign to the misdirection of the 
commanding general. If, however, it can be shown, as now seems to be 
likely from incomplete events, that on wider, clearer, and more imposing 
fields Gen. Lee has shown qualities which the campaign in the mountains 
of Virginia had not illustrated, the friends of this commander may be assured 
that the author will be honest and cordial in acknowledging the fact, and 
that in a future continuation of these annals, justice will be done to the 
recent extraordinary events in Virginia, fraught with so many critical issues 
of the war, and associated with so many reputations dear to the people of the 
South. In writing the facts of this war, the author takes no counsel of pop¬ 
ular cries, and notions fashionable in the newspapers; he is neither the 
panegyrist nor the antagonist of any clique; he is more pleased to praise 
than to censure, but his aim is truth, and he is resolved to pursue it, no 
matter what popular prejudice or affection he is compelled to crush in its 
attainment. 




THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


355 


censurable to withhold from them the plain recognition of their 
accomplishments. The present war will win the respect of the 
world for the masses of the people of the Confederate States. 
With inferior numbers, with resources hampered on all sides, 
we are yet winning the issue of the great struggle in which we 
are involved, No one claims that this is owing to the wisdom 
of our government. No one ascribes it to the ability of our 
military chieftains; for blunders in our military management 
have been as common as in our civil administration. But 
there is a huge, unlettered power that wages the war on our 
side, overcoming everywhere the power of the enemy and the 
incumbrances of our own machinery. It is the determined, 
settled will of the people to be free, and to fight themselves 
free, that has constituted our strength and our safety. 

The existing war has, doubtless, disappointed the world in 
its meagre phenomena of personal greatness, and, to some ex¬ 
tent, has disappointed its own people in the bigotry of its 
policy and the official restraint put upon its spirit. It may be 
said with singular truth, that it has produced or exhibited but 
few great men—that it has not raised up to public admiration 
in the South a statesman, an orator, a poet, or a financier, all 
which are generally considered as much the natural products 
of war as military genius itself. For this disappointment, 
however, we may find an explanation in some degree satisfac¬ 
tory. It is, that the very circumstance of the almost universal 
uprising of the people of the South, and the equal measures of 
devotion shown by all classes and intellects, have given but 
little room for overshadowing names, and presented but little 
opportunity for marked personal distinctions of greatness. 

After all, it is the spirit of the people that is most sure to 
achieve the victorious results of revolutions; and on this firm 
reliance, and not on the personal fortunes of master-spirits, or 
on adventitious aid, or on the calculations of any merely ex¬ 
ternal events, do we rest, under Providence, the hopes of the 
Southern Confederacy. The verdict of the history of the world 
is, that no powerful nation has ever been lost except by its own 
cowardice. All nations that have fought for an independent 
existence, have had to sustain terrible defeats, live through 
deep, though temporary distress, and endure hours of profound 
discouragement. But no nation was ever subdued that really 


356 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


determined to fight while there was an inch of ground or a 
solitary soldier left to defend it. 

As far as the war has been fought, its results, in a military 
point of view, are deeply humiliating to the North. The war 
was commenced by the North with the most intense expres¬ 
sions of contempt for its adversary; the idea of the contest 
being extended beyond a few months, was derided and spit 
upon; in that short time it was believed that the flag of the 
Union would float over the cities and towns of the South, and 
the bodies of “ traitors” dangle from the battlements of Wash¬ 
ington. 

This was not affectation. It was calculated by many people, 
in a spirit of candor, that a contest so unequal in the material 
elements of strength as that between the North and the South 
would be speedily determined. The North had more than 
twenty millions of people to break the power of eight millions; 
it had a militia force about three times as strong as that of the 
South; it had the regular army; it had an immense advantage 
over the South in a navy, the value of which may be appre¬ 
ciated when it is known that its achievements in the war have 
been greater than those of the land forces, and that its strength, 
with proposed additions to its active war vessels, is estimated 
to-day in the North as equivalent to an army of half a million 
men. 

Nor did the superiority of the North end here. While the 
South was cut off from the world by the restrictions of the 
blockade, without commerce, with but scanty manufactures 
and few supplies on hand, the North had all the ports of the 
world open to its ships; it had furnaces, foundries, and work¬ 
shops ; its manufacturing resources compared with those of the 
South were as five hundred to one; the great marts of Europe 
were open to it for supplies of arms and stores; there was 
nothing of material resource, nothing of the apparatus of con¬ 
quest that was not within its reach. 

These immense elements of superiority on the part of the 
North have not remained idle in her hands. They have been 
exercised with tremendous energy. Within the last fifteen 
months the government at Washington has put forth all its 
power to subjugate the South; it has contracted a debt six 
or seven times more than that of the South; it has called out 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


357 


more than half a million soldiers: it has put Europe under 
contribution to furnish it not only arms, but soldiers to use 
them ; it has left no resource untried and omitted no condition 
of success. 

The result of all this immense and boasted superiority on 
the part of the North, coupled with the most immense exer¬ 
tions is, that the South remains unconquered. The result is 
humiliating enough to the warlike reputation of the North. 
It has not been separated from its feeble adversary by seas or 
mountains, but only by a geographical line; nature has not 
interfered to protect the weak from the strong; three “ Grand 
Armies” have advanced in the Confederate territory; and yet 
to-day, the Yankees hold in Virginia and Tennessee only the 
ground they stand upon, and the South, in spirit, is more in¬ 
vincible than ever. 

Nor has the war, so far as it has been waged, been without 
great moral benefits to the South. We may indicate at least 
three important and inestimable blessings which it has confer¬ 
red upon our people. 

It has made impossible the theory of the “ reconstruction” 
of the old Union, which was no doubt indulged in the early 
formation of the Confederate government. It has carried a 
revolution, which, if no war had taken place, would probably 
have ended in “reconstruction,” on the basis of concessions 
from the Northern States, which would in no way have im¬ 
paired the advantages of the old Union to them, to a point 
where the demand for our independence admits of no alterna¬ 
tive or compromise. It has revealed to us the true character¬ 
istics of the people of the North; it has repulsed us from a 
people whose vices and black hearts we formerly knew but im¬ 
perfectly ; and it has produced that antagonism and alienation 
which were necessary to exclude the possibility a reunion 
with them. 

Again: the war has shown the system of negro slavery in 
the South to the world in some new and striking aspects, and 
has removed much of that cloud of prejudice, defamation, 
falsehood, romance, and perverse sentimentalism through which 
our peculiar institution was formerly known to Europe. It 
has given a better vindication of our system of slavery than all 
the books that could be written in a generation. Hereafter 


358 


THE FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR. 


there can be no dispute between facts plainly exhibited and 
the pictures of romance; and intelligent men of all countries 
will obtain their ideas of slavery from certain leading and in¬ 
disputable facts in the history of this war, rather than from 
partisan sources of information and the literary inventions of 
the North. The war has shown that slavery has been an ele¬ 
ment of strength with us; that it has assisted us in the war ; 
that no servile insurrections have taken place in the South, in 
spite of the allurements of our enemy ; that the slave has tilled 
the soil while his master has fought; that in large districts un¬ 
protected by our troops, and with a white population consisting 
almost exclusively of women and children, the slave has con¬ 
tinued at his work, quiet, cheerful, and faithful ;* and that, as 


* The following is taken from the letter of an English nobleman, who 
visited the South while the war w r as in its active stages, and the result of 
whose observations there, at the time war was racking the country and many 
of our own whites were houseless and starving, was, that the condition of the 
negro slaves in the South was “ better than that of any laboring population in 
the world.” 

******* 

“ Among the dangers which we had heard at New York threatened the 
South, a revolt of the slave population was said to be the most imminent. 
Let us take, then, a peep at the cotton-field, and see what likelihood there is 
of such a contingency. On the bank of the Alabama river, which winds its 
yellow course through woods of oak, ash, maple, and pine, thickened with 
tangled copse of varied evergreens, lie some of the most fertile plantations of 
the State. One of these we had the advantage of visiting. Its owner received 
us with all that hospitality and unaffected bonhomie which invariably distin¬ 
guish a Southern gentleman. Having mounted a couple of hacks, we started 
off through a large pine wood, and soon arrived at the “ clearing” of about 
two hundred acres in extent, on most of which was growing an average cotton 
crop. This was a fair sample of the rest of the plantation, which consisted 
altogether of 7000 acres. Hiding into the middle of the field, we found our¬ 
selves surrounded by about forty slaves—men, women, and children—engaged 
in “ picking.” They were all well dressed, and seemed happy and cheerful. 
Wishing to know what time of day it was, I asked Mr.-the hour, where¬ 

upon one of the darkies by my side took out a watch and informed me. 

“ ‘ Do your laborers wear watches, sir V I inquired. 

“ 1 A great many of them have. Why, sir, my. negroes all have their cotton- 
plats and gardens, and most of them have little orchards/ 

“We found from their own testimony that they are fed well, chiefly upon 
pork, corn, potatoes, and rice, carefully attended to when sick, and on Sundays 
dress better than their masters. We next visited the ‘ station/ a street of 

cottages in a pine wood, where Mr.-’s slaves reside. These we found 

clean and comfortable. Two of the men were sick, and had been visited that 



THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


359 


a conservative element in our social system, the institution of 
slavery has withstood the shocks of war and been a faithful 
ally of our arms, although instigated to revolution by every 
art of the enemy, and prompted to the work of assassination 
and pillage by the most brutal examples of the Yankee sol¬ 
diery. 

Finally, the war has given to the States composing the Con¬ 
federacy a new bond of union. This was necessary. Com¬ 
merce and intercourse had been far more intimate between the 
Slave States on the Lower Mississippi and those on the Upper 
Mississippi and its tributaries, than between any portions of 
the Confederate States. The war has broken this natural affin¬ 
ity ; it has supplanted sympathy by alienation, interest by 
hate, between the people of Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, and 
those of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi; and by the prin¬ 
ciple of repulsion as well as union, by the tie of a common 
bloodshed, and the memory of a common labor and glory, the 
stability of our Confederacy has been strengthened and se- 
cured. 

Such are the inestimable blessings which, although draped 
in sorrow and suffering, the war has conferred upon the people 
of the South. 

The resolution of the South to achieve its independence has 
been greatly encouraged as the war has advanced. It is alike 
prompted by the spirit of her people, and strengthened by mo¬ 
tives which address the judgment. These motives are explained 
in the plain consequences of subjugation. The spirit of the 
North in the existing war has already been developed far 
enough to indicate the certain condition of the South, if her 
enemy should succeed in establishing his dominion over her 
people. That condition may be described in confiscation, 
brutality, military domination, insult, universal poverty, the 
beggary of millions, the triumph of the vilest individuals in 
these communities, the abasement of the honest and indus¬ 
trious, the outlawry of the slaves, the destruction of agriculture 
and commerce, the emigration of all thriving citizens, farewell 
to the hopes of future wealth, and the scorn of the world. The 

mornino- by a doctor; in the mean time they were looked after by the nurses 
of the establishment, of whom there were three to take care of the children 
and invalids.” 





360 


THE FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. 


resistance of such a destiny, properly conceived, will restore 
the worst fortunes of war, pluck victory from despair, and 
deserve the blessing of Providence, which “ can save by many 
or by few,” and which has never yet failed to reward a just 
and earnest endeavor for independence. 


Richmond, September, 1862. 


APPENDIX. 


The attention of the author was directed to some particulars of his work, 
which required some correction or explanation, at the time when it was pass¬ 
ing through the press. It was then too late to modify the passages referred to, 
unless in the form of a postscript or appendix. The author congratulates him¬ 
self that he has found real occasion for so few corrections or explanations. 

Page 36.—The date of Anderson’s evacuation of Fort Moultrie should he the 
26th of December instead of the 20th; the error occurred through a mistake of 
the digit 6 for 0 in the rough notes of the author. 

Page 177.—In noticing the expedition of our cavalry to Guyandotte, we 
should have associated with this bold enterprise the name of Col. Clarkson, 
who originated it and was intrusted with its execution by Gen. Floyd. The 
services of Col. Clarkson on this and other enterprises, and his intrepidity on 
some of the most critical occasions in the western Virginia campaign, deserve 
mention, and we regret that we can give it no further within the limits of this 
postscript, than to supply the omission of credit justly due him in connection 
with the famous expedition of our cavalry to the Ohio. 

Page 247.—The circumstances in which Governor Harris left Nashville 
were imperfectly known at the time; and there is no doubt but that some 
injustice was done to one of the most ardent and courageous patriots of the 
South, in attributing his conduct on this occasion to panic or embarrassment. 
The circumstances in which he acted have been ascertained from unquestion¬ 
able sources of testimony, and may be briefly narrated here: On the morning 
of Sunday, the 16th of February, at ten minutes after 4 o’clock, a messenger 
arrived at Gen. Johnston’s head-quarters at Edgefield, opposite Nashville, with 
a dispatch announcing the fall of Donelson. Orders were at once issued to 
push the army forward across the river as soon as' possible. The city papers 
or extras of that morning published dispatches announcing a “ glorious vic¬ 
tory.” The city was wild with joy. About the time the people were assem¬ 
bling at the churches, it was announced by later extras that “ Donelson had 
fallen.” The revulsion was great. Governor Harris, however, had been 
informed of the fact early in the morning, and had proceeded to Gen. John¬ 
ston’s head-quarters to advise with him as to the best course to adopt under 
the altered circumstances. The action of the State authorities would, of 
course, be greatly influenced by the course Gen. Johnston intended to adopt 
with the army. The general told the governor that Nashville was utterly 



368 


APPENDIX. 


indefensible; that tbe army would pass right through the city; that any 
attempt to defend it with the means at his command would result in disaster 
to the army and the destruction of the city ; that the first and highest duty 
of the governor was to the public trusts in his hands, and he thought, to dis¬ 
charge them properly, he should at once remove the archives and public rec¬ 
ords to some safer place, and call the Legislature together elsewhere than at 
Nashville. Governor Harris did all this quietly, energetically, and patriotic¬ 
ally. Just as soon as he had deposited these papers, he returned to Nashville. 
The confusion at Nashville did not reach its height until a humane attempt 
was made to distribute among the poor a portion of the public stores which 
could not be removed. The lowest passions seemed to have been aroused in a 
large mass of men and women, and the city appeared as if it was in the hands 
of a mob. The military authority, however (Gen. Floyd having been put in 
command by Gen. Johnston), asserted its supremacy, and comparative order 
was restored. During these excitements it became publicly known, for the 
first time, that Governor Harris was out of the city, but few really knowing 
that he had quietly gone away in the discharge of a public duty. His absence 
was wholly misunderstood, and, of course, misrepresented. There is no doubt 
but that, in the course of these misrepresentations in the newspapers, injustice 
was done to a man who illustrated his devotion to the South by distinguished 
courage on the battle-field, and who, from the moment that he first rebuffed 
the Washington government in his famous defiance to Lincoln’s call for 
troops, down to recent periods in the history of the revolution, had given the 
most constant and honorable proofs of his attachment to the liberties and 
fortunes of the South. 


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